Quantum Entanglement
by cookie-sheet-toboggan
Summary: [FemSlash] Hope Van Dyne is desperately trying to obtain parts for her father's quantum bridge when she learns that SHIELD knows of their project and has great interest in it, with Maria Hill herself tracking her movements (This is primarily a Hope/Maria fic with some positive Hope/Scott & Maria/Natasha rep planned within it. In this house we respect Black Widow and Ant-Man).
1. First

No one had ever truly left S.H.I.E.L.D. The organisation had their talons in everything and everyone that had ever so much as cast a shadow near it.

The tall slender woman had twisted her black pencil skirt, slightly adjusting it before she opened the large golden door, her briefcase hitting into it upon entry, before she walked through and into a large hotel foyer. Her heels clacked on the tile floor as she passed into the lounge, tucking her brown, shoulder length hair behind her ear; naturally scanning the room, counting heads, blueprinting exits, noting furniture and support beams that would second as gunfire cover, all while holding a calm nonchalant demeanour.

"Ah. Ms. Lance." A tall blond man, wearing an expensive tailored suit, stood to greet her. While, unknowingly, calling her by an alias.

Maria Hill reached out to his extended hand, where he squeezed it as she passed pleasantries with a kiss to the air at his cheek, where he mirrored her actions. She was never one to naturally participate in such an intimate greeting such as this, but she learned that the man was easier to manipulate when she showed a little warmth. Even when it wasn't genuine in the slightest.

"Mr. Burch," The undercover agent smiled as she sat down at the table after he gestured at the seat across from him. Then sitting himself.

"It's always a pleasure to see you." He said through a thick southern accent.

"Yes, a pleasure to your bank account," she added.

The man laughed jovially before taking a sip of his scotch. "This is true. Your requests have always come mysteriously but never without extra weight added to my chequebook."

Maria had to force a smirk, not having an ounce of respect for the weapons dealer and manufacturer.

She was not against the creation of weapons themselves, she just hated them being sold with zero regards, and to whomever had the funds to pay for them. Especially when the majority of her job seemed to be cleaning up the mess made by 'bad men with guns.'

"So, what is it I can do you for this time?" His greedy eyes twinkled.

"I need you to make yourself available," she said simply.

"To you? I already am," he winked, throwing his hands casually behind his head, before visibly raking his eyes down to her chest, and then back up to her face.

Maria had to use all the strength in her body not to react to his wandering gaze. She pressed forward, "I need you to put it out there that you are available to obtain this–" she put the case on top of the table, opening it to show him its contents "–and sell it."

"Oh, wow." He took his time to look over the technology. "Guess I shouldn't ask where you got this, knowing you'd never tell me." He gazed up to her as he continued, "But I have to tell you, as much as this is indeed rare, I don't know if anyone is in the market for it."

Maria smirked, knowing that his words couldn't be further from the truth. She had good intel that Hope had approached him a month prior, looking for this exact part for their quantum bridge.

The agent had Tony Stark engineer the component. She planned the request at the most convenient of times, right before Pepper Potts's birthday. She had told Tony that if he'd make the part without question, she'd give him the details and credit for the birthday surprise that she had already planned for Pepper on his behalf. The man, who had not realised it was the evening before his girlfriend's birthday, quickly agreed, and three days later, she had her part.

"Well, if you don't think you can sell it, I'll move on down the line. Get someone else to do it," she sighed, putting on a performance, while pulling back the case towards herself on the table.

"Well now hold on a moment there," he quickly jumped in, "I never said I couldn't sell it. I'm just saying the sellers fee might be a little higher. You know, for all the extra work I'll have to put in to finding a buyer." Maria fought back the urge to roll her eyes at his words. "I want thirty-five percent."

The money meant nothing to Maria. Tony didn't even charge her for supplies let alone labour. What's a few thousand in raw materials to a billionaire anyway? However, Maria really did not like Sonny Burch of Cross Technologies, nor did she appreciate the bullshit that was constantly spewed from his mouth, so she countered his offer. "Twenty."

He laughed, "Twenty? That's absurd." He then eyed her, "Twenty-five."

She simply repeated, "Twenty."

His face then split into a grin as he shook his head at her, "I like you, Ms. Lance. You just say what you want and don't compromise on it." He took a swig of his drink, polishing it off, before nodding and extending his hand, "Alright, twenty percent it is."

Maria nodded plainly and shook his hand before giving him a card with her contact information. "Call me after you set up a buyer." She then took her package and walked out, a satisfied smirk on her face knowing that this part would bring a quantum bridge one step closer to becoming a reality.

After exiting the building the agent turned down an empty side street, pulling her keys out of her blazer pocket as she approached her parked vehicle. Just as she unlocked her ride with the fob, about to pull the driver's door open, the SUV suddenly shrunk to the size of a Hot Wheels car. Then, as if out of nowhere, a figure appeared beside her, grabbing the case out of her hand before throwing a fast cross hook at her face. Fortunately, Maria's quick instincts and training kicked in where she had easily blocked the strike. She grinded her teeth, recognizing the figure as Hope Van Dyne in her Pym Particle suit that had resembled her mother's old Wasp one. Maria had only seen her in the suit the one time before, caught on satellite imagining, but had never seen her up close in it, or her in combat action wearing it.

Hope turned to flee with the package where Maria was quick to kick off her heels and dropped her keys to make pursuit. It only took a few strides before she dove at the other woman, grabbing her by the face of her helmet; pulling her back and down, but before Hope had fallen to the ground, she shrunk, dropping the package to the sidewalk, as she abruptly turned her miniaturised body, in-flight, before quickly growing back to size in front of Maria.

Hope threw another punch where Maria had ducked under it and come up to grab her extended arm; knowing that striking back at the armoured suit in response would only hurt her own hand. Maria then attempted to flip her to the ground, but she shrunk again, which made the agent growl in frustration. Within a moment Maria could feel the other woman behind her, grabbing her. One arm bent around her neck with the other hand holding the back of her head, securing her in a chokehold.

The woman deactivated her helmet, unmasking her face, before she growled into Maria's ear, "What is S.H.I.E.L.D. doing selling tech to Sonny Burch?"

Maria struggled against her hold as she grunted back, "Don't play dumb. You know exactly what we're doing." Knowing that the woman was smart enough to put two-and-two together.

Hope had been buying from Burch for over a year now and every time he pulled though with her requests, despite his company being a sub-par operation.

Maria had been covertly nudging Cross Tech. employees to the rarer components that Hope had been ordering. Today, being only the second time she'd shown up personally to sell a part directly to Burch. Not that Hope could work out those particulars right then, but she really didn't need to know the finer details to understand the overall situation.

"God, you guys are like ravenous dogs, running around the neighbourhood taking a piss on everything in sight, thinking it's now yours," she spoke in what sounded like annoyance above anything else. "How long have you been surveilling us?"

Maria didn't have anything to lose in telling the truth, and if anything, it gave her some power in her compromised situation; letting her know that S.H.I.E.L.D. had both control and restraint. "Since 1987."

It didn't take long for Hope's grasp to become tighter around Maria's neck, as the agent squirmed beneath her, gasping for air. Hope now knew that they've been watched ever since her mother had disappeared and her father had cut ties to S.H.I.E.L.D..

Hope growled loudly as she angrily threw Maria to the hard concrete below. The agent coughed as she rubbed at her neck, turning to see Hope miniaturise and fly off, leaving the briefcase behind.

Maria huffed as she slowly picked herself up off the ground. She then took a hold of the case and went to her shoes, sliding them on. She sighed looking at her toy sized SUV before she took out her phone to hail a ride from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s California based headquarters.

"Goddamnit," she muttered under her breath, after ending her call, not knowing if she were more angry with herself for being caught, or with Hope Van Dyne for catching her. Either way, she'd have to pay that woman a little visit. Hope would still be needing her abandoned part after all, and Maria knew that she'd have a hell of a time tracking down another just like it. If she wanted it in a timely manner, she'd have no other choice but to get it from her.


	2. Second

Hope Van Dyne grumbled as she clapped her laptop shut in frustration. She sighed; dropping her chin into her hand as her gaze wandered to their partially built quantum bridge, that took up the majority of the lab. She had been trying to find another dealer who could get her that particular specialty part, not wanting the one that Burch had contacted her about, knowing who the seller was.

It had been two weeks since she'd discovered what S.H.I.E.L.D. had been up to. From what her father had always told her about that organisation, she had always had a skeptical eye of them. However, her encounter with Commander Hill; seeing the agent up and cozy with an arms dealer, all while investing in their project for their own personal gain, truly solidified Hope's opinions of them. They were greedy and entitled; doing whatever they pleased.

She growled while she came to accept the reality that she would have to get the part from S.H.I.E.L.D. Though, Hope was not going to stoop so low as to go through Sonny for it. No, she'd make them give it to her themselves.

She picked up her cell phone and dialed the number to an old French restaurant that her mother and father had used to frequent, along with the Starks, back when the foursome were all friends. She made a reservation for two under her father's name for that evening. Knowing that the Pym moniker would get her a reservation to the exclusive establishment, but more importantly, suspecting that S.H.I.E.L.D. would have eyes there. She was fairly sure that the owners would have been encouraged to, 'call this number if Hank Pym ever showed up.'

She had always told her father when she was going out, especially when it was pertaining to their project so that he could run surveillance and act as a backup if need be. In this instance, however, she had not wanted him to find out that she was knowingly meeting up with S.H.I.E.L.D. She'd felt relatively safe on this endeavour; knowing the need for backup would be slim. They might have been in hiding, but S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't after them, they were evidently helping them, but at what cost? Hope's aim was to find that out.

Hope looked at the clock, figuring she had better start getting ready. Suddenly the annoyance she'd been feeling was fading away as a smile grew on her face; almost excited that she had a mission that didn't involve wearing a ponytail and yoga pants under an armoured suit. She hopped up and took the elevator to her personal suite so she could get ready; telling her dad as she passed that she'd be going out for some air at the waterfront to recharge for awhile.

About two hours later Hope was sitting at a table for two, Martini in hand. She wore an emerald sleeveless dress that swept down to the floor. Its neckline lay across her collar bones as the back plunged down almost showing the entirety of her muscular back. Her hair was partially down with a slight curl just at the very ends. There were two large hair pins holding up the hair that was swept up on one side of her head, behind her ear.

She looked down to her drink, swirling the olive inside of it as she impatiently tried to pass the time away. She had been waiting about fifteen minutes, and was wondering if S.H.I.E.L.D. had even known about her movements that evening.

Just before she was about to bring her glass to her lips, she saw a black briefcase slide to her feet. She looked up to Maria Hill casually sitting down at the seat across from her.

The agent barely acknowledged her as she turned to the approaching waiter, "Je prends un Courvoisier, s'il vous plaît," she smiled warmly at him where he nodded and turned to fetch her the cognac that she'd just ordered.

Hope studied the woman, taking in her appearance. She was wearing a dark blue cocktail dress that had a boat neck. Her hair was completely swept into a simple updo which exposed her magnificently angular jawline. The agent then looked to Hope, exposing the most piercing sapphire eyes she'd ever seen, as she leaned back in her chair.

Hope had only really had the time to study Maria from afar, noting her beauty previously, but there, in that moment, as she was stationary and right before her eyes, Hope physically gulped at how stunning she was.

Maria then cocked her head slightly as she seemed to look her over too. "I have to give it to you. This is probably the nicest rendezvous I've ever attended," she tightly smirked, but her eyes twinkled as if she were genuine.

"Well, I thought it was the least that I could do. You know, make up for kicking your ass at our last meet and greet." Hope leaned in, crossing her arms in front of her on the table.

Maria rolled her eyes shaking her head, "Yeah, shrinking down in size before your ass hits pavement, isn't exactly the crowning victory you make it out to sound."

Hope had to bite the inside of her lip to hold back a chuckle, knowing the agent across from her had a point. She then straightened up, almost forgetting herself and who she was interacting with. She then tensed her jaw and narrowed her eyes. "What exactly is it that S.H.I.E.L.D. wants with our quantum technology?" She asked, cutting straight to the chase.

"Nothing," Maria lightly shrugged.

"Oh, don't give me that," her words came out plainly while she internally scoffed at Maria's ridiculous answer.

"Nothing at this time," she continued. "S.H.I.E.L.D. likes to keep an eye on advancements being made."

"Don't you mean 'keep a finger on advancements being made'?"

Maria looked her in the eye as she nodded, "Yeah, that too. To an extent." Her contact never faltered as she continued. "If we can help something along, such as your quantum bridge, we're not going to shy away from doing so. But –to be clear– we're not here to annex your tech. As much as your father refuses to believe it, we are not your enemy."

Hope was impressed by the agent's subterfuge, her delivery seemed genuine even when her words didn't. "Look, I'm really not the type to play word games. We don't need to figure out who can better mask the smell of their bullshit. I'd appreciate honesty. And if not that, we could always resort back to throwing punches." She couldn't help but smirk a little as she added, "I'm not wearing my suit now, so you might actually have a chance of landing a blow this time." Maria briefly closed her eyes as she chuckled under her breath at Hope's words.

Before the agent could respond, their waiter had returned to their table and placed Maria's drink in front of her. "Voulez-vous voir le menu maintenant?" Their server asked them.

Hope quickly, yet politely, wished him away as she responded, "Merci, mais pas maintenant." Wanting to continue their conversation uninterrupted. The man, getting the hint, promptly bowed his head and turned away with a tight smile.

Maria picked up her drink, taking a sip before she leaned slightly forwards, minimising the space between them. "Okay, the fact of the matter is, I'm a soldier, not a spy. I joined the military at age sixteen. I assure you, the only things you're gonna get from me is simple honesty."

"Honesty?" Hope quickly realised the contradiction in Maria's words, "Like the identification papers you would've needed to forge in order to get into the military as a minor?" She raised her brow in interest of the woman's past more than in the scepticism of her declaration of truth.

"Yeah, well desperate times call for desperate measures. When you're kicked out of your house as a teen, there aren't many places to go."

Hope knew that she had no right to ask, but she wanted to see how far Maria was willing to go in her attempts of earning her trust. Also, not wanting to admit it to herself, she was genuinely taken with the woman and simply wanted to know more about her. "Delinquent childhood? Parents couldn't handle your rebellious actions?" She asked; throwing out possible reasons for her guardian's harsh actions towards her.

Maria lifted her glass, chuckling before she spoke into her drink, "Yeah, rebelliously dating my girlfriend of the time." She then took another sip of her brandy.

Hope's heart skipped a beat while she felt her skin grow hot, as the reveal of Maria's attractions towards women had excited her body. She quickly pushed her sudden onslaught of emotions down while she focused on the more pertinent meaning of the agents words. "So you joined an institution that only furthers one's obligation to lie through omission?" Hope lifted her glass. "You may not deceive like a spy, but soldiers can show dishonesty just as effectively in their silence." She then sipped her drink, hoping that Maria took her words as a slight to her employer, and not towards her character. Knowing that she would have had to keep her sexuality hidden while serving for most of her career due to the military's past homophobic policies.

Hope could see Maria's jaw clench as her eyes ever so slightly narrowed, making her instantly regret what she'd said, or more importantly, how she'd said it. She had absolutely no obligation in showing kindness towards this S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who had been sticking her nose into their business, yet she felt desperate to somehow smooth over her previous words.

Hope sighed, "Okay, so if you are indeed being completely honest with me here," her guilt throwing Maria a little slack, "what exactly is it you think you're going to get from this?"

Maria simply said, her guards visibly up a bit now, "The same thing you are."

Hope practically laughed out in exasperation, "You're hoping to find my mother too?"

Instantly she was disappointed in herself for revealing information that S.H.I.E.L.D. had no need nor right to know. It's just that Maria had a way of making her feel secure, which was the exact opposite of what she should have been experiencing within her company.

Maria furrowed her brow in confusion. "You guys think The Wasp could still be alive?" The woman asked almost softly, like she had intentions of not wanting to offend.

Hope's body tensed in anger. Not knowing exactly who she was angry at, but Maria was going to be the one to bare the brunt of it. She growled through a clenched jaw, "It's no concern to you. If it really is our project, our tech, and you truly have no intentions of laying claim to any of it, you will lay off this topic about my mother," the woman in green strained her neck as she tilted it with such stiffness. She had so many deep seeded emotions when it came to her mother that this interaction easily pushed her over the edge.

Maria didn't say a word. She just sat back and examined the woman, to the point where Hope wanted to squirm under her gaze, but dared not show any weakness in that moment. Finally Hope snapped; blurting, "What?"

Very calmly Maria spoke up, "I suggest you take this part then" –she gestured with her head to the suitcase at Hope's feet– "because I doubt you'll find it anywhere else." She then pulled two twenty dollar banknotes out from her bra, tossing it on the table. "Drinks are on me," she said, no smile, no frown, just a flat emotionless face presented, before she rose to her feet and casually walked away.

Hope watched her heatedly as she sauntered to the door, leaving. Frustrated at the corner Maria had seemingly trapped her in. The woman picked up her drink and slugged the rest back as nerves danced around the entirety of her body. Maria had instilled such conflicting emotions in her that her head was spinning. One thing she knew for sure was that she would have to proceed with utmost caution, and keep the knowledge of their meeting a secret from her father. She could handle this on her own. She could handle Maria on her own.

With that, she emphatically grabbed the briefcase on the floor and stood up to leave as well. Hoping that she wasn't making a huge mistake.


	3. Third

"Head's up," Maria approached Hope, who was sitting on a park bench; tossing her a blue glowing object. The woman responded with cat like reflexes, easily catching the item. Maria then casually sat down next to her, lifting a foot up on the bench, relaxing an arm over her knee, as she turned to look at the woman, who was beautifully lit by moonlight, and now, the cyan neon glow from the object she had in hand.

Hope studied the object for a mere moment before ripping her head up to look at Maria. "Did you really just throw an arc reactor at me?" She asked in amusement, as if she couldn't believe her actions.

Maria shrugged, "Apparently," as she smiled.

It had been two months after their first meeting, when Hope had contacted her; texting the phone number that Maria had left her in the suitcase that held the last part that she'd supplied her with. It took Maria nearly three weeks to acquire the item for her. Not that physically getting it was the issue, the problem was that she was busy on assignment in South Asia, and had only just arrived state side that week.

"I was surprised you asked for one of those," Maria pointed to the part. "I thought your dad hated Stark, along with all his tech."

Hope sighed as she put the part into her bag. "Yeah, well, he doesn't need to know. I'm tired of our power issues. They're setting back the whole project." She patted her bag, "This thing should work perfectly, by my understandings of it." She then scrunched her face as she cocked her head at Maria, "please don't tell me Stark knows where his tech is going to."

"Nah," Maria couldn't help but smirk at her adorable face,."That was one of his many reject reactors. The issue with this particular one was the type of glass used in it. According to his notes, it wasn't sturdy enough to go into battle with."

"Are you telling me you stole Stark tech out of the garbage for us?"

"I'm not completely sure one can steal garbage, but yeah, pretty much."

Hope shook her head, "You really do have your talons hooked in everything. Trash bins included," she said plainly, which Maria couldn't quite read. During their first encounter, she'd compared S.H.I.E.L.D, and to an extent, herself, to an entitled dog marking its territory. But Hope's words seemed a little different this time. The scientist then shifted on the bench, sliding her thigh up on the seat so that she could better face the agent. "So, if you feel justified in taking from your own friends, what's to stop you from taking Pym tech too?"

"I'd say your giant ants," she retorted in a smart-ass manner. "There's no way I'm dumpster diving when one of those creatures could pop out at me."

Hope bit down on her bottom lip as she stifled a laugh. "Our ants do not hang out in the trash!" Maria couldn't help but grin at her reaction as she locked her gaze with Hope's, intently staring into her pretty green eyes. Hope's face then turned to one of annoyance. "Could you please stop that."

"Stop what?"

"Stop making it hard for me to hate you. It's easier for me to distrust people when I hate them."

Maria could have sworn she felt here ears grow hot in a blush, as she dropped her chin into her hand; her elbow resting on her erected knee, as she studied the woman next to her. She was possibly the most beautiful woman she'd ever laid eyes on, and in their brief interactions, she seemed to have such a tender personality which seeped through her thin tough-act-persona façade. "Sorry," Maria responded cheekily. "But you know," her words came a little more weighted now, "you can trust I'm here to build bridges, not burn them." She briefly cocked her head as she realised her choice of analogy. "Pun not intended, yet now I'm kinda wishing that it was."

Hope narrowed her eyes at her, yet she had a smirk on her face as she huffed, "Please, I trust you about as far as I can throw you."

"Well, I reckon you could throw me pretty far if you shrunk me first."

Hope's face split into a grin, "Are you giving me permission to shoot you with my particle blaster?"

She glared at her, holding back a smile, "Possibly. Then I could at least fit inside my old SUV again."

Hope erupted into soft laughter. "I'm not even sorry about that. That serves you right for spying on me."

Maria chuckled, "Well here I was hoping I could convince you to bring it back to size for me." She sighed, "My favourite Hungarian chew candies were in there."

"That's what you're concerned about?" Hope's eyes twinkled at her ridiculousness.

"Vehicles are a dime a dozen at S.H.I.E.L.D, but that candy is locally made in a small town, about seventy-five clicks outside of Budapest," Maria defended her position.

Hope shook her head before she looked up to gaze at the stars. The wind tousled her long beautiful hair, where Maria had the urge to reach over and push her locks behind her ear. She just looked so breathtaking in that moment. The agent then clasped her hands together around her knee, as if she had to restrain herself. Hope sighed, breathing in the crisp evening air before she focused her attention back onto Maria, which made the agent awkwardly look away; scared that Hope had somehow known her inner thoughts. Maria took a second to regain herself before casually meeting her gaze once again.

"Do you really not have any plans for our bridge?" She asked in seriousness, yet she lacked the edge when she had inquired about it at their last meeting.

Maria stared into her eyes, which were almost haunting as they implored her for the truth. She had every intention of being honest with her as she explained. "A large portion of my job is made up of collecting intel and resources, which often includes fostering relations with those who hold valuable assets."

"But your intentions were not to foster relations with us."

"No, not at first. My original orders were to covertly guarantee the completion of your project."

"But I screwed that up for you," Hope said, not so much in a brag, but in a display of her skills.

"Right." Mara nodded, conceding to how she was bested by Hope. "So now here we are."

"Here we are," she then added onto Maria's words, "with you hoping to become allies with us, so if a time ever arises that you need our bridge, we'll be here to welcome you over," she nodded her head in understanding.

"Precisely. And in exchange, we'll supply you with parts and protection."

Hope bit her bottom lip in contemplation before she sighed, "I have to say, it sure sounds like an innocent sales pitch."

Maria could see her apprehension, choosing to acknowledge it. "Like a free weekend in The Hamptons. But then they surprise you with a mandatory day long seminar about purchasing a timeshare? That kind of innocent sounding sales pitch?"

"Yeah. I'd say that's a pretty accurate analogy."

"I know this will mean little to nothing to you, but I do promise you, you will not be screwed over in this."

"Well, we kind of already are. It's not like we actually have a choice here." Maria sighed, knowing her words to be true. Once S.H.I.E.L.D. had its sights on something, they were relentless. She, herself, was often relentless too. Maria's face must have reflected her internal dialogue, because Hope responded to it plainly, "Yeah, that's what I thought."

Before Maria could think up something to say in response, Hope's mobile phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket, answering it as she stood up. "Hey." She listened into the phone as she slowly began to pace. "No! Don't turn it off. I'm doing a full system diagnostic on it–" She put her hand up to her forehead as she took in a deep calming breath before cutting off the voice "–Yeah, I know it's malfunctioning, hence the test. I need to know exactly where the problem is." She listened in annoyance before she instructed, "Dad, do not turn it off. I'm coming back now, okay? Just please don't touch it–" She walked over to her bag, picking it up off the bench to throw it over her shoulder "–Okay, see you soon. Bye," she clicked off her phone.

"He might be a genius particle physicist, but –boy– does he ever show his age when it comes to computers," she huffed at Maria where the agent couldn't help but chuckle internally. "I have to go." Hope then locked eyes with her. "Goodbye, Maria," her voice had a hint of softness as she said her name, which made the agent's hairs prickle up on her skin.

Maria gave a warm smile as she responded, "Goodbye, Hope." The woman smiled back, nodding her head, before turning around to walk away. Maria watched her fondly as she disappeared into the darkness.

"You like her."

Maria jumped in her seat as Natasha Romanoff's body sauntered from behind her before she sat down next to her. "Dammit, Tasha! What are you doing here?" she said in annoyance, hating when she startled her like that.

"After you made contact, changing your mission, Fury called me in."

Maria eyed her suspiciously. "Why?"

The woman nonchalantly wrapped her hand around Maria's thigh, "To observe."

"Yeah, and what's it you've observed?"

Natasha, scooted closer to her, resting an elbow on her shoulder, bringing her face right in close to Maria's, as she often did. "That you sat on delivering Tony's reactor for nearly three weeks."

"I was out of the country."

"Yeah, but I wasn't. You could've easily asked me to get the part and deliver it for you."

"I didn't know you were read in on this file."

"You have the authority to read me in," she retorted sweetly.

"I didn't think I'd be away for as long as I was, to have to do that," Maria tried her best to justify her actions.

Natasha hummed a chuckle, "You are such a terrible liar, Maria," She gently pushed a piece of brown hair out of the commander's face as her gaze pierced into her untruthful friend's eyes. "You really must like her," she teased.

"And what if I do?" Maria bit her lip, "Does it make you jealous?" She asked, knowing the answer would be no. They had a very unique relationship over the years. Natasha was her closest and dearest friend, and she loved her immensely. They also had an open, on again off again, sexual relationship. They had never committed to each other as anything other than loyal friends, but they had still fallen into bed on occasions together; using each other as comfort.

"You're cute." Natasha pushed her fingers through Maria's hair, playing with it, "Trying to arouse me, like I'm the one on your mind right now."

"Tasha, stop." –she gently pushed her busy hand away– "Besides, I'm pretty sure she's straight and dating Scott Lang."

"I highly doubt they're dating since he's currently under house arrest and she's underground. And by the way she was looking at you–" she leaned in to whisper into her ear "–I don't think she's all that straight." She then lifted her body gracefully out of her seat as she walked away. "See you back at HQ. I'll keep my door unlocked in case you need to burn off all that pent up energy you're holding in there." Maria rolled her eyes at her before chuckling at her cheeky friend.

Maria then brought her other foot up onto the bench, hugging her legs in tightly as she took a moment to herself to gaze up at the stars. Her mind started to wander, wondering about Natasha's involvement; hoping she wasn't going to compromise her power over the operation. Often her friend's presence meant ulterior forces at play inside the organisation. The last thing she wanted was for Hope's scepticism of her, and her motives, to be proven right through actions she couldn't control. She hated to admit it to herself, but she didn't think that she'd be able to take unfair advantage of Pym tech. She was okay to pinch products out of Tony's scrap pile, but it felt so different with Hope. Maria sighed, crashing her head down into her knees, angry with herself for allowing herself to get attached. This was not her. She was better than this.


	4. Forth

It had been nearly a month since Hope had covertly installed the arc reactor inside the bridge. Luckily her dad had been too busy working on sequencing to notice her handwork; thinking that she'd simply rerouted power more efficiently, and not actually added more power to the system. They'd attempted three trials; turning the bridge on, where none of them had been successful in reaching the quantum realm. However, they both had speculated that they were close.

The anticipation was palpable in the air those last few weeks, like they had, for the first time, truly believed that there was an actual chance that they could see her mom again. It had been the goal since the beginning of the project, but now it felt real. Like it was actually within their grasp. They'd finally know, once and for all, if she was out there.

"Hope!" She heard her dad call down to her from the control room, as she was busy tinkering with the vehicle they'd designed to drive into the bridge. "Your phone keeps ringing!"

Hope had assumed it was Sonny calling about a part. A part that she didn't bother S.H.I.E.L.D. about, since it was a simple repeat order with Cross Tech..

She put down her tools; crawling out from underneath the vehicle, as she hurriedly made her way to her dad, who was holding out her mobile. By the time she'd reached it, it had stopped ringing. Taking the phone she had noticed that it wasn't Burch, it was Maria. She had called twice in a row. Just as she was reading her call history, it rang again; the agent's number popping up on the display. "Is that Burch?" Her dad asked. "He sure seems desperate to reach you."

"Ah," Hope scurried down the stairs, quickly distancing herself from her dad. Not wanting him to overhear the call. "Just one sec," she muttered out a half-assed response to her dad. She then quickly answered her phone, "What's up?" She asked curiously; finding it odd that the agent had called her repeatedly and in such short succession.

Maria's voice came instantly, with the utmost seriousness. "You need to get out of the labright now!"

"What?"

"There's a tracking device somewhere inside your lab and there's an inbound airborne hostile locked onto its location."

Hope repeated her question, but this time she spat it out, "What?"

"You have five minutes to evacuate your lab and get as far away from it as possible."

Hank approached his daughter, with concern on his face, clearly overhearing her outburst. "Hope, what's going on?"

"Hope!" She heard Maria yelling from the other line, "You have to get out. It's deploying missiles."

"Missiles?" Hank barked, evidently now able to make out Maria's voice from the other end of the line. "Who the hell is that?"

"When you get outside, shrink the lab. It might throw off the missiles' tracking."

Hope became enraged at Maria, and her message of warning. She forcefully grabbed Hank's arm. "Dad, we have to go.Now." Her words came out steadier than she'd expected them to sound.

"Our plans. The blueprints!" He growled.

"Grab the hard drive," she instructed him; wanting the device that had all their work backed up onto it. "I'll grab the cars and my suit."

She then heard Maria's muffled voice emanating out of the phone that she'd lowered, away from her ear. "Hope, you don't have time!"

Hope ignored her, angrily hanging up on her as she ran for the mentioned items. It took less than a minute before they were in the elevator with their essentials. Her body was vibrating as they reached the bottom floor, running out to the street where she had shrunk the lab, as instructed, before growing a car to size for them to hop into and drive off in.

They were only a block away, in the industrial complex that they had been hiding out in, when they heard a huge explosion, followed quickly by another. Hope stopped the car as she looked out the wing mirror. She saw thick smoke rising up from behind the warehouse that their lab had just been on the other side of.

The pit of her stomach had acked. Looking out at the cloud of ash, she was reminded of the pain she had felt back when her dad had told her that she'd never see her mother again, all those years ago when she was a child. She was losing her all over again. Her eyes blurred through hot tears as a calm hand reached out to hers that was gripping the wheel.

"Drive," came her dad's voice. Hope was shocked by his steady tone, but when she look over to his face, she saw his jaw tensed, bearing wild eyes. He wasn't calm, he was livid. His visible anger snapped her into gear as she stepped on the gas, taking them fast and far away from the scene, along with any hope of ever seeing her mother again.

Forty-Eight Hours Earlier

Maria had walked into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s main headquarters in Washington D.C.. She was in her blue uniform, bearing her sidearm, clutching a coffee in hand. The woman stepped into the large glass elevator, where a soldier nodded, "Ma'am," to her; pressing the top floor button on her behalf without her having to ask.

Maria nodded back in thanks before she took the brief time it took to climb the building, to look out one of the huge glass windows. She had often allowed herself, when she could, to enjoy the sunrise that first morning ride up. She took a sip of her coffee, watching the orange of the skyline grow in size as they reached greater heights. After three stops on her way up, "Operations," came from the automated voice of the lift, cutting off her moment of peace. She turned around, now the only one left in the elevator, taking a deep breath, readying herself for the day, just as the doors opened.

"Commander," Staff Sergeant Ramirez approached her as soon as she stepped onto the operations deck. "Fury want's to see you in his office a-sap."

Maria took another sip of her coffee. "Thanks, Ramirez," she said before holding out her travel mug to him where he took it without hesitation. It was a familiar ceremony between the two; her passing him things in the mornings if there were ever anything urgent for her to attend to.

Maria walked over to find Fury in his office, along with Natasha, and Norman Osborn of Oscorp, already in conversation. "And this is Commander Hill," Fury gestured to her, as she walked in. The Director leaned back against the front of his desk as he continued, "She's our acting Pym Tech liaison."

Norman turned to her; flashing her a sly smile, a sly smile that only unethically wealthy capitalists ever seem to present. "Excellent." He placed his hands inside his pant pockets as he took a step closer to her. "Commander, from your knowledge of the quantum bridge project, how close to completion would you say it is?"

Maria cocked her head in confusion and disbelief before she turned to Fury for clarification, as to why another private tech company would be asking S.H.I.E.L.D. about Pym Tech. "It's alright, you can answer the question," he assured her.

She tightened her jaw and slid it to the side, as she fought off the urge to question her commanding officer. She took a short breath before answering; trying to hide her disapproving tone as best she could, "I have not seen the bridge, nor have I been told of its progress."

"Huh," Norman said in fake curiosity, "Agent Romanoff seems to think it's in its last stages of development."

Maria flashed her friend a look of betrayal before focusing back on the man. "I'd say Agent Romanoff doesn't have enough information to make such a definitive claim."

Natasha folded her hands behind her back as she said, almost coldly, "Based off the power spikes coming from their lab, I'd say I have enough information for my claims." She informed Norman. "They're definitely testing the bridge."

Maria could feel every muscle in her body tense. She knew about the energy spikes, and had assumed Natasha would have been aware of them as well. But she'd hoped that she would've kept her mouth shut about it to Osborn. "Hill," Fury ordered her, "Go back to San Francisco. Set up a meeting with Pym, and negotiate our access to the bridge. We'd like to see it."

"'We', sir?" Maria asked for clarification.

"S.H.I.E.L.D, as well as" –he gestured to Norman– "our allies." The CEO smirked devilishly at Fury's words.

She wanted to bring up her concerns; tell him that they'd never agree to that, but she knew not to do that in front of their present company. "Sir, what if we can't reach an agreement and they refuse?"

"We'll skin that cat if it comes to it." Maria simply nodded in understanding his odd combination of idioms. He then confined, "You and Agent Romanoff may be dismissed."

Maria shot Natasha a glare as she responded to Fury, "Yes, Sir." She then spun on her heels before cantering out of the office.

She soon heard Natasha speedily coming up from behind; matching her pace as she fell into step beside her. "What the hell was that, Tasha?" Maria barked out in a low tone, not wanting others to over hear.

"Which part exactly?" Her voice came calmly.

Maria rolled her eyes in annoyance, knowing Natasha knew exactly what she was referring to. "Norman Osborn. Let's start there." She approached the elevator that she had only just arrived in a few minutes prior.

Natasha leaned over to press the button to call the lift. "Look," she dropped her voice, "you didn't hear this from me, but I've got good intel that we owe Osborn a favour." She tilted her head to the side as she added, "a pretty big one, at that."

"Well, does your intel say anything about what he wants with the bridge?"

The elevator chimed, opening its doors where Natasha stepped in, Maria following. "No. But, knowing Osborn, it's probably not to make the world a better place."

Maria practically punched the parking-level button in frustration. After the doors had closed they both proceeded to the back of the lift, looking out the rear window; knowing that the elevator had cameras but was without an audio recording system. Meaning that they were safe to talk covertly with their backs to the cameras by the door. "They're never going to agree to a deal involving Oscorp inside of their lab." Maria sighed in anger, "And quite honestly, I can't say I'd let him in there even if they did, regardless of my orders."

"You and me both."

Maria's head snapped to the side as she uttered in shock, "Really?" Surprised that she had shared her same sentiment. Maria was fearful that she was allowing her personal feelings of not wanting to betray Hope, cloud her judgment. But Natasha gave her confidence that the situation was indeed the potential security risk that she'd assumed it to be, and warranted concern.

Before Natasha could respond, the doors had opened and a couple of lab technicians had stepped inside. Maria was about to tell them to take the next ride, but decided to stay quiet as to not raise suspicions. Besides, their presence was probably a good thing, for it had allowed Maria to work out a plan.

Once their companions had exited out onto the main floor, Maria turned to face the doors, waiting for them to open at the parking level. As soon as they did, she stepped out onto the empty lot, taking a few paces before spinning around to lock eyes with Natasha. "Are you willing to go behind Fury's back, and make sure Osborn never gets his hands on their quantum bridge?"

Natasha's eyebrow raised in intrigue, "Areyouwilling to go behind Fury's back?"

Maria huffed, "Despite what you may all think, my loyalty to Fury doesn't come with a blindfold."

Natasha smirked, "Yeah, I know." She took a step closer. "So does Fury. I'm pretty sure that's the very reason he trusts you the most. He knows your morality isn't as clouded as the rest of ours."

Natasha's words gave her a stronger sense of justification for what she was planning on doing. "Tasha, this isn't right."

"Yeah." She then smirked with a glimmer of mischievousness in her eyes, "So what are we going to do about it?"

Maria flashed a grin, ecstatic that her friend had offered to help her. "We're going to blow up the quantum bridge."


	5. Fifth

The Pyms were driving North down Route 101 for about forty-five minutes before Hope turned them off at a motel just outside of Santa Rosa. Neither of them had spoken a word since the incident; both were too deep inside their own heads, but Hope knew that her dad was boiling; about to explode.

Hope got out of the car, continuing their silence as she wordlessly left her dad to go pay for their lodgings. After the transaction (that she paid in cash) she got their key and walked to the outside entrance of their room, not even bothering to go back to the vehicle; knowing that her dad would see which residence she'd enter. She left the door ajar for him after she'd gone inside, where she began instantly pacing the floor.

She pulled her mobile out, seething as she went to Maria's number, wanting to phone her and grill her with questions. But instead of pressing the call button, she growled while opening the back of the phone to pull out both the battery and sim card; suddenly worried that it was no longer safe for her phone to be functioning as it made it able to be traced.

She then grabbed the remote for the television, turning it on to find the local news channel. Wanting to see if anything was reported about the missile attack.

"Okay, Hope," Her dad slammed the door shut after he had entered the room, "It's time for you to start talking. Tell me exactly what just happened!" He barked which made the woman jump. Whenever her father had lost his temper, he had always managed to frighten her.

Hope fumbled with the remote, quickly muting the television. In that moment she had felt like she was a child again as her father was about to scold her. "I honestly don't know." She looked to him with shame and confusion.

"Don't you dare lie to me," he spat, pointing an accusing finger at her, where she took a small step back in response.

She then burst out in defense, "I'm not lying! I don't know who blew up the lab or why!" Saying out loud that the lab was gone, making it that much more real to her, had instantly brought tears to her eyes.

"Who called you, huh? Who was that on the phone?" His pointed glare stabbed Hope to her very core. Her father had so many trust issues. Despite their rocky relationship over the years, she was still the only person he'd ever truly let in after her mother had disappeared into the quantum realm. But now, the look of utter disappointment that he was giving her, felt worse than the fact that their one possible connection to her mother, was now a pile of ash.

Hope closed her eyes, not wanting to be privy to the reaction that would follow. "Maria Hill," she said in a small voice before opening her eyes.

"Why do I know that name?" He seemed to be searching his memory before it clicked. "Nick Fury! She's Fury's eyes and ears!" He narrowed his eyes at her, "You've been in contact with S.H.I.E.L.D.?" He growled.

"We would be dead if it wasn't for S.H.I.E.L.D!" Hope passionately retorted back, hot tears now streaming down her face.

"Our lab is destroyed because of them!" He shouted. "There was a tracking device in the lab, according to your new best buddy there. And she was probably the one to put it there." He angrily swept at the air between them as he yelled, "Wake up, Hope!"

She didn't know how to respond to that. He could have very well been right. Maria could have been the one to put them in danger in the first place. Trusting her was in all likelihood what had gotten their bridge blown up. Maria had known that there was a tracker in the lab, she could have been the one to put it there –or worse– she could have used Hope as a mule to unknowingly bring one in. Hope then shook her head as she thought on it more, but it still wasn't making any sense to her. S.H.I.E.L.D. had wanted to use their bridge, not destroy it.

"Hope," her dad aggressively snapped his fingers at her, making her lose her train of thought. "Volume," he pointed at the T.V. which was now showing a reporter standing just outside of the location that their lab had been; the ground still smoking with firefighters moving about in the background.

She quickly rubbed her tears dry with her hand as she turned up the volume. The reporter was mid sentence in her coverage, "...and as we can see the after effects of the drone attack here, beside this old steel mill. Luckily it hit an empty lot." The anchor pointed to a giant gaping hole in the ground, "There have been no reports of casualties. There have, however, been eyewitness accounts, as well as a cellphone video, revealing that it was an armed Wingman Drone by Hammer Industries that had fired the missiles." The screen then showed a low quality recording, shot in portrait view, of the drone flying over the water, then firing towards the shore at the industrial yard. To their luck, the camera didn't have a view of the hit zone; clearing their identities from the altercation. "We reached out to Hammer Industries, but they have yet to release a statement," the reported finished off.

"Hammer Industries?" Hank barked. "What business do they have with us? Why would they attack us?"

A knock then came at their door, interrupting Hank's line of questions. Hope instantly turned off the T.V. then took a hold of the motel's landline phone, unplugging it to use as a blunt force weapon, if need be, before she quietly moved to the door; Hank right behind her for backup.

She looked through the peephole, seeing only the parking lot and a glimpse of the sun starting to set. She then slowly opened the door to find nothing on the other side of it. Turning her head, she noticed a folded up note taped to the door. She casually threw the phone onto the bed nearest her, before she curiously took a hold of it, opening it to find a message that read:

This mandatory seminar about purchasing a timeshare was not part of the plan but unfortunately here we are.

Below it was an address. Hope grinded her teeth, hating Maria's cryptic message.

"What? What does it say?"

"I gotta go," Hope turned to leave, but Hank was too quick and stepped in, grabbing her wrist before snatching the note from her.

He then let go of her as he read. "What does this even mean?" He asked when he was finished.

"It means if I go to that address I'll get answers."

"There is no way I'm letting you go there alone." For the first time he had an expression on his face other than anger. He actually looked concerned for her well being.

She sighed, collecting herself before she walked up to her dad, embracing him in a hug. The man took a moment before he relaxed into her; enveloping her into his arms. "Dad, I know you think I've been stupid and careless, but I really need you to trust me. I'll be fine." she couldn't even give a reasonable explanation as to how she knew this, but she just did. She then pulled away from him. "Though," she cleaned get jaw in anger, "I can't say the same thing about Maria. I might genuinely murder her." She grinded her teeth, genuinely wanting to strangle her.

Hank looked to her in defeat, "It's like I don't even know who you are right now." He held out the note to her, body now deflated. "Go." Hope stiffly nodded, heart breaking at his words, as she took the paper before she turned to leave for the car.

About twenty minutes later, following the GPS in the vehicle, Hope pulled up a long dirt drive into a clearing in the forest that sat a beautiful, modern, two storey house, backlit by the pink sunset. "What the..." The woman cocked her head as she practically pressed her face up against the windscreen to get a better look. She had wondered whose place it was. Thinking it could be anything from a safehouse, to a rental, to –god knows– one of Tony Stark's many homes, knowing that the billionaire was so close with S.H.I.E.L.D. he'd probably given them access to his many properties.

The sight of the building had made her realise just how many assets Maria Hill had access to. She stopped the car, throwing it into park and cutting the engine; her anger now bubbling up again. Maria had all these resources; she knew about the tracking device, she knew about the drone attack, she had this meetup location, which was such a short distance away from their motel that they'd only just found, which she'd pinpointed instantly. She had to have had the knowledge to spare them their lab. Yet she didn't.

Hope sprang out of her vehicle, slamming the door behind her before she furiously cantered to the front door, quickly tying her hair back with the elastic that was found around her wrist; readying herself to throw down. She didn't even knock, she merely ripped open the door and barged in.

She scanned her new surroundings, instantly finding Maria, who stood up from a crouching position in front of the living room fireplace, that lay to her left. It looked like she had been tending to the fire that was blazing in the hearth. "You are a dead woman, Hill," Hope hissed as she made haste towards Maria.

"Hope, wait," Maria put her arms up in defense, but Hope was not hearing any of it. Her patience and reasonability were completely drowned out in unadulterated fury. As soon as she laid eyes on the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, the woman who had cut her so deeply with her betrayal, all she wanted to do was punch her annoyingly perfect jawline; disconnecting it from her lying face.

Hope took a swing at Maria where the agent had dodged it. She then grabbed her attacker's extended arm, but before she could twist it back to get Hope into a lock, the scientist swept her foot; kicking her stance off balance. The agent dropped to her knees as Hope tried to deliver another kick; this time to her head, but Maria caught her foot. The agent then pulled it towards her while forcefully pushing Hope's shoulder as she came crashing down, flipping her onto her back with Maria landing on top of her. Before the agent had time to get a proper hold on her, Hope got a hand at Maria's hair, using it as leverage as she yanked her off of her, quickly reversing their positions. Hope then pushed her forearm into Maria's neck, applying pressure onto her windpipe. "Why did you do it?" Hope hissed out in emotional distress. "Why did you let this happen?" She blinked away the tears that were welling up in her eyes. "You said I could trust you!"

Maria punched at her ribs before wrapping her legs around Hope's body, rolling her off of her, getting the higher ground once again. When Hope's head hit ground, the thud of her skull and the ache in her ribs allowed Maria the opportunity to grab hold of her wrists; securing her hands just above her head on the carpet below, all while Hope winced in pain. Maria then looked down to her as she heaved, while catching her breath, "Over there." She then strained her neck to look back behind them, as she gazed off towards the sofa at the end of the room. Hope then lifted her head, bringing chin to collar, to see what she was gesturing at. There, sitting to the side of the couch, tucked underneath an end table, sat their lab, miniaturised to the size of a suitcase, and completely unscathed.

"Wha...," Hope whispered out in complete shock, before she dropped her head back down to look at Maria, whose face was mere inches away from her own. "How?" She gasped heavily.

Maria huffed through panted breaths, "There was no tracking device." –she shook her head– "I lied incase our phone call was being monitored. We scooped up the lab with a motorbike right before the missiles hit the site."

"We?"

"Myself and a trusted friend," Maria explained, her breathing now back under control. "The same trusted friend who tailed you to your motel and delivered my message to your room."

Hope then looked back to her lab, needing the confirmation that it was, indeed, there and she hadn't imagined it. "Who sent the attack then?" She asked, still not completely comprehending how her lab was there before her eyes.

"I did."

Hope's head snapped back to focus on Maria. "I thought S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted the bridge?" She asked in confusion.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. does. And so do others." Maria then looked up into the distance, as if she were gathering courage before she dropped her head back down again while sighing. "My actions were independent of S.H.I.E.L.D.," she admitted. "I acquired the drone in secret, and piloted it myself." –she locked eyes with Hope– "I shot your lab's known location to make it look like it was destroyed by an outside hostile."

Hope was vibrating with an onslaught of emotions; anger, confusion, relief, scepticism, she couldn't sort them all out. She needed a semblance of control. In desperation for her own sanity, she pulled her hands out of Maria's, now, loosened grip. She then grabbed a hold of the agent's shoulders, throwing her off of her to the ground as she straddled her hips. Maria didn't even fight back that time, she just let Hope pin her to the floor by her shoulders; allowing her arms to flop down beside her. Hope then narrowed her eyes at her with disbelief. "So you're telling me that you, Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D, knowingly deceived Fury and the entire organisation you swore your allegiance to, just so we'd be left alone?"

Maria's sapphire eyes bore into Hope's very soul as she answered her with complete conviction, "Yes."

Hope implored her, needing to understand the woman laying beneath her, "Why?" She nearly cried out for an answer.

"It's not our bridge." She simply said as her eyes softened. "It's yours. Yours to find your mother with."

Hope's heart started beating so fast that it felt as if it was going to burst right out of her chest. Maria's words about her mother, implying that she'd risked her career, all for her to have an opportunity to find her, made Hope lose any power she had prior in fighting off her blatant desires towards her. Before she'd realised what she was doing, Hope dipped her head down; crashing her lips together with Maria's as she clapped her eyes shut.

Maria responded to the kiss almost instantaneously as she suckled on Hope's lip while bringing her hands to her waist, she then dragged them up her back; sending shivers along her spine with them. Hope slid her hands from Maria's shoulders to the sides of her neck as she repositioned her mouth to scrape her tongue over the agent's teeth, begging for entry. Maria granted her entry, opening her jaw as she met Hope's tongue with her own which caused the woman below to arch her back and moan into Hope's mouth. The guttural sound that came out of Maria made Hope's hands drift further behind her neck, fingers tangled in dark brown hair, as she pulled the agent's head up, needing to deepen their kiss like her very life had depended on it. Maria then grabbed at Hope's ponytail, ripping the elastic out of her hair as it fell around their faces like a waterfall. The action made Hope gasp in excitement, sending her stomach into a flutter, before Maria's fingers busied themselves; finding a home as they combed through her long locks, then settling at the base of her neck.

Hope could feel tears running down her face as she kissed the woman with a sense of desperation. She had always been one to fall quick and hard for people, but there was something different happening in that moment with Maria. She couldn't quite put her finger on it. She'd assumed it was probably something to do with their secretive and high stakes relationship. Not wanting to decipher it any further than that; scared of the possibility of it being something deeper.

Maria removed a hand from Hope's body as the other slowly found its way to settle on the side of her face, softly cupping her cheek. The agent beneath then smoothly lifted herself into a sitting position, guiding Hope along with her; not breaking their kiss in the process. Maria then wrapped her arm, that she'd just used to prop them up, around the lower back of the woman who was straddling her lap; pulling her in closer right before they parted mouths. They both took a deep breath, not realising how deprived they were of air.

Hope then felt Maria's hand brushing her hair away from her face where she fluttered her wet eyes open to see the woman looking at her tenderly, which made her heart skip a beat and her stomach knot. Maria then ran her fingers gently over her cheeks, drying her tears; making Hope tremble underneath her touch. "Do you want to come upstairs with me?" Maria asked softly. Hope gulped before nodding her head. There was no possible way in which she could deny this breathtaking woman before her; she was beyond captivated by her. Maria bore a heartwarming smile as she responded, "Okay." She then coaxed Hope to lift herself up off of her so that she could stand up herself. She then instantly took Hope's hand, wordlessly guiding her to the second floor and into a bedroom. Maria wasted no time in pulled her in close as Hope wrapped her arms around her, kissing her passionately once again before they fell into bed together.


	6. Sixth

Hope fell atop Maria, bare skin to bare skin, as the agent crashed her head down to the pillow below; wrapped her arms around the woman whose stomach pressed down against her hip, with one leg sprawled over her lower body. They were both panting as Hope tucked her face into the crook of Maria's neck.

While the agent started to catch her breath, she slowly raised her hand to push long golden brown locks away from Hope's sweaty brow, as the woman leaned her head back; giving her better access as her beautiful, flushed face was revealed behind her messy mop of hair.

Maria then looked up to study the ceiling as their body's came back down, when all of a sudden a sense of dread came over her. She felt like this wasn't just some typical one-night-stand where she'd have her fun and go on about her life after parting ways, without a seconds thought. This seemed somehow different. There was something inherently intrinsic about the woman in her arms; like she could have belonged there to stay, and the thought of losing her made her feel uneasy.

She then felt the weight of Hope's head lift off of her shoulder before she muttered, "Shit, it's late." Maria noticed her looking at the alarm clock on the night side table. "I gotta go. My dad's probably worried." She sat up, making Maria shiver in the loss of body contact, as Hope crawled out of bed. She then speedily scavenged the floor for her discarded clothing before she sat on the edge of the mattress, where she proceeded to get dressed.

Maria sat up in bed, pulling a sheet over her naked body. She silently watched her getting ready to leave, which brought the feeling of a heavy weight in the pit of her stomach. "I suggest you get any more needed parts from Burch," Maria forced herself to say, wanting Hope to stay safe and concealed away from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s eyes.

Hope, about to put on her sock, suddenly stopped her actions and stiffened her back at her words. "Right." Her tone almost sounded pointed. "According to S.H.I.E.L.D., our operation is dead, and we're now no longer associated with eachother." She never turned to look at her, as she then aggressively yanked her sock on before shoving it into her shoe.

In that moment, Maria longed to lean forward and wrap her arms around her from behind; pulling her in close, but she knew that that would only make it more difficult for herself. She needed their parting to be casual, to not mean anything. Or at least, she needed to make herself believe that. She knew that their lives were parting ways indefinitely. Their relationship was far too high risk now.

Hope, now nearly completely dressed, stood to grab her final item, her sweat jacket, that had been tossed close to the door. She slowly put it on, zipping it up to her chest, before she sighed and turned to lock her gaze with the agent in bed. "Goodbye, Maria," her voice came almost as soft as the expression on her face.

Maria took in a small gasp of air before she replied, "Goodbye, Hope." Her voice had betrayed her though, as it faltered; almost failing to get the words out.

Hope turned her head away and took a couple steps towards the exit, but as soon as she reached the threshold of the doorway, she stopped. She then dropped her head, shaking it as she murmured, "Fuck," before she suddenly spun around and beelined it back to the other woman. Just as Hope got her one knee onto the mattress, Maria reached out and pulled her up by her hips so that she could straddle her lap. Their lips came crashing together once again as their kiss had communicated what their words could not. Maria pulled her in close in an aching necessity; their time that they had spent together wasn't nearly enough; she needed more, she needed so much more.

Like a flower bud that had been ripped off its stem before it had time to blossom, Hope tore her mouth away and rolled off of Maria. She didn't stop to look back that time; she merely walked out of the room, and to an extent, out of Maria's life.

Maria brought her knees up to her chest, hugging them tightly while she listened to Hope as she trotted down the stairs. The next thing she heard was the sound of the front door closing, then shortly after the rev of her car engine before it sped off down the driveway.

Maria buried her face into her palms as she took a deep breath, before she dragged her hands downward; pulling her cheeks along with them. It was then that she'd gotten a waft of her fingers that had still smelled like Hope, which made her groan out as she crashed her body down onto her side, hands falling to the bedding in front of her. She didn't know how long she'd been dissociated; staring out blankly at the far wall in the dimly lit room, before she heard the sound of a motorbike followed by the rumble of the garage door opening.

Maria slowly lifted herself up and crawled out of bed in annoyance of having to snap back to reality. She picked up her clothing before carrying them into the washroom to take a shower.

She allowed the water to fall over her body; almost hating it for wearing away at the residual sensations on her skin that Hope had left on it from her touch. She gently caressed below her jawline, dragging her fingers over it; remembering how it felt when Hope's mouth was suckling on the supple skin at the pulse point at her neck. She sighed, dropping her hands away from the tender spot before she grabbed a bar of soap to wash up, as she had intended.

Shortly, Maria was dressed, hair damp, as she descended the stairs to find Natasha sitting on the sofa, bottle of red wine open, with two goblets sitting on the coffee table in front of her. The ginger looked up from her tablet, that she had in hand, before she smirked at her knowingly. "Wow, she was sure here a long time." She teased with a hint of pride, "I thought I was going to have to find a motel room of my own for the night."

Maria couldn't find it in her to play along and entertain her, as she looked to the spot, underneath the end table, that Hope's lab had previously been in, now empty. She took a breath, almost wanting to cry, as she stiffly went to sit next to Natasha; pouring herself a glass of wine. She then asked, ignoring the other woman's comment. "Did you call it in?"

Maria sat back in her seat as she locked her gaze onto the fireplace that sat in front of them, across the room; taking a sip of her drink. "Yeah." Maria could hear the curiosity in her friend's voice. "S.H.I.E.L.D. now has both of our accounts that the quantum bridge has been destroyed."

"Do they suspect Hammer Industries?"

"No more than anyone else. They don't know who it was. But they did order me to investigate. Figure out if the Pyms got out alive."

Maria still didn't look to her, instead she dropped her gaze; rubbing her finger over the mouth of her glass, making it sing. "What are you going to tell them?"

"Probably that I found them in that motel there. I already snapped a few pictures when I was there early. I'll send them in, then when they eventually pop back onto our radar, it shouldn't raise too much suspicion for us." Maria nodded her head before taking another sip of her drink, but this time she nearly downed half the glass. Natasha then put her tablet on top of the table before she turned in her seat to face the brunette. "Talk to me," she requested gently.

Maria shook her head, refusing to verbally acknowledge her feelings, "I've got nothing to say."

Natasha sighed as she gently took the wine glass out of her friend's hand and placed it next to her tablet. She then wrapped her arms around Maria; pulling her towards her to place a kiss on her forehead. Maria then allowed her head to drop on top of her shoulder; where she hugged her back. They sat there for a while in silence before Natasha asked, "When do you have to report back?"

"Tomorrow, zero-eight-hundred." She recalled back to her conversation with Fury, the one that she had before Hope had shown up at the house.

"So, you want to watch a horrible Hallmark movie and make fun of it, before you have to fly back to D.C.?"

"Okay," Maria answered softly, not ready to give up the comfort of her friend and leave for the airfield. Natasha reached for her tablet again; searching it for a movie. Maria then lifted her head to look at her friend, so grateful for everything that she'd done for her. For going along with her unsanctioned plan, and now, for being an incredibly supportive friend. "Thank you," she managed a small smile.

Natasha looked over to her as she smirked, "You're not going to be thanking me in a moment, because I found a movie that rips off 'Armageddon' called 'Supernova'." Her eyes lit up in a devilish glimmer. "A disaster movie on a made-for-T.V. budget. It's going to be amazing. You'll see." Maria couldn't help but chuckle at her. "I've been wanting to watch this with you ever since I found it on here last month." She then gazed back to her screen, clicking on the mentioned film. She then propped up the device with its case, that doubled as a stand, on the coffee table, before she leaned back, resting her arms around Maria once again.

Maria sighed into her, closing her eyes as she sucked the bottom of her lip into her mouth, reminiscing on the sensation of Hope's lips around it. Once she realised what she was doing, she popped out her lip and forced her eyes open to focus on the screen in front of her; mad at herself for dwelling on Hope again.

She tried to convince herself that Hope was just some offhand fling, already in the past; with nothing else to it. Yet the sad emptiness that she was feeling was making her inner dialogue hard to accept as truth. She huffed through her nose as she stubbornly force fed herself the lie, the lie that she had no intention of giving up on; that Hope meant nothing.


	7. Seventh

Hope closed her eyes; taking a deep breath, her heart pounded as she raised her particle blaster in front of her. "Okay, I can do this," she whispered to herself before opening her eyes to see one of their white lab rats standing on top of the table that sat in front of her, staring at her with its red beady eyes. She then squeezed the trigger, resulting in the rat shrinking to the size of a marble, but before Hope could get a cheer out, the rodent popped into a small salmon pink coloured goop explosion. "Shit!" She cursed. She had thought for sure that she had made the necessary modifications to her blaster; giving it the ability to properly manipulate a biological atomic structure, but to her dismay it remained frustratingly the same; only able to stably influence the sizes of inorganic structures.

"Hey, Hope!" Scott Lang had bounded up the set of stairs towards the elevated room that she had been working out of, inside of their lab that held their fully functioning quantum bridge. He reached her, throwing his hands onto his hips as he panted out in excitement. "You'll never guess what just happened?"

Hope removed her safety goggles, taking off her glove that held her blaster, as she turned to her partner in confusion, "I thought you left like an hour ago to drive Cassie home from school?"

"I did. By the way, she wanted me to ask you how you're liking the mug she gave you."

Hope smirked as she picked up the mentioned item next to her which was half filled with lukewarm coffee. "You mean the one that says, 'World's Greatest Hero'?" She teased him. "Tell her it's perfect."

"You know, grandmas are the real unsung heroes of the world." He retorted back in a goofy manner, as he referenced the gift that his daughter had given him. A golden cup with the same inscription as Hope's mug, save the last word that refered to him as an ultimate matriarch. (According to Cassie, they were sold out of all the appropriately engraved plaques for him at the time of purchase.) Scott then muttered under his breath, "Besides, trophies are more prestigious than coffee mugs." Hope bit down on her bottom lip to conceal a chuckle, finding his jealousy to be adorable. He then noticed the goopy mess on top of the table. He slowly turned to her, baring wide eyes, as he muttered, "You didn't?" He pointed at the spot, "Hope, not again..." he whipped his head over to the rat cages along the wall. "Who was it this time?"

Hope sighed, "Number Five."

"Number Five? Hope, he had a name!" He snapped his head back dramatically.

"Just because you called him Sir. Bites-Hisfootsalot doesn't mean the rest of us have to."

"But he did bites his foots a lot!" She shook her head at his ridiculousness as he continued. "Hope, you ended his little life on his one week anniversary, out of all the days." He then looked at her with an over-the-top comical face of disgust, "You monster!"

She couldn't help but laugh out, "Anniversary for what?"

He walked over to her, taking her hands in his own as he looked at her with the utmost sincerity that he could muster up, "His one week anniversary of completing the rat obstacle course that I set up last month."

"Oh, god," she rolled her eyes before redirecting him back to his opening remark, as she asked, "I thought you had something to tell me?"

His eyes lit up. "Oh, Yeah!" He squeezed her hands before dropping them. "So after I dropped Cassie off at her mom's, I went back to my place. And as I pulled into my driveway, there he was!"

"There who was?"

"Cap!" His excited face promptly dropped as he quickly added, "–tain America." He vigorously nodded his head as he shrugged, trying to come across nonchalantly, "Captain America."

Hope's interest instantly peaked, totally ignoring Scott's annoying habit of calling Steve Rogers 'Cap'. "What did he want?"

"Get this!" The man had the excitement of a child who was just let loose in a candy store. "He's asked us to officially join the Avengers!"

Hope gasped with excitement. She had so desperately wanted to get out there more and make a difference. She had wished for nothing more than to have the opportunity to get into her suit and become the hero that her parents had been when they were part of the Avengers.

"Nah-ah, no way!" Hank called out. Hope and Scott walked over to the ledge of the room to see the older scientist looking up at them. He had evidently been tinkering with something near them, with Janet assisting him. "You're not joining that reckless, misguided group," he huffed.

"Dad," Hope descended the stairs, with Scott on her heels. "You and Mom founded the group," she retorted.

"Yes, and it was a mistake."

"Oh, Hank," his wife reached over to him as she spoke calmly. "You don't mean that. We did a lot of good when we were a part of that team."

"And it's up to us, anyway," Hope added.

"Oh, it is, is it?" He responded to his daughter sarcastically. "So you two are just going to take my suits and do with them as you please? Might as well have a repeat Germany situation while we're at it."

"I'm sorry, again. Alright? I apologised for that like a hundred times already," Scott interjected with zero acknowledgment from anyone, like he was talking to himself.

"Wait," Hope couldn't believe the words coming out of her father's mouth. "Are you telling us,telling methe Ant-Man and Wasp suits aren't even ours? You're just letting us use them as long as our actions are first pre-approved by you?"

"I didn't say that."

"Well, what are you saying then?"

"Hank," Janet gently took her husband's shoulders in hand; spinning him around to face her. She shook her head at him before saying, "They have to decide this on their own." Janet locked her gaze with Hank's, as Hope could see him visibly deflate in her hold. He then slowly nodded. Janet smiled, then looked over to her daughter, gesturing with her head for her and Scott to get out of the lab to talk about the proposal in private.

Hope smiled at her in return, loving her so much in that moment, wondering how she ever got on without her. It had been just shy of a month that they'd gotten her mother back from the quantum realm, where Hope had taken nearly every opportunity that she had to spend time with her. Janet Van Dyne was every bit as wonderful as she had remembered her, and more.

Hope then grabbed Scott's hand, dragging him to the elevator, bringing him up to her suite. As soon as they reached her floor, she brought them over to her large, yellow sofa; plunked herself down while pulling Scott along with her.

She turned to him, nerves excitedly dancing through her body. "So, what exactly did he say?"

"Well, he said they're trying to grow the Avengers project, and thought we'd be a great fit." He smiled proudly. "I think he saw me grow really big on the news." He referenced the altercation that happened while they were rescuing Janet, that resulted in Scott embiggening himself out in the public's eye.

Hope held back a smile as she said sarcastically, "Yeah, I'm sure that's what made him want us." He flashed her an innocent grin where she sighed; focusing on the severity of the conversation. Whatever they were to decide on would be life altering. "So," she asked seriously. "Is this something we want to do? Like, would we have to relocate to New York? What about our families? Specifically, what about you and Cassie?"

"I asked him about that, and he said we could still stay West Coast based and just make the necessary trips to the Avengers Tower for training, and missions, and other avengery stuff."

She raised her brow, "Avengery Stuff?"

"His words." He nodded. "Well..." he then scrunched his face and tilted his head, "I think they were his words? To be honest, between his godlike pecks and his dreamy eyes, I may have, kind of gotten lost for a moment there during our conversation."

She shook her head at him before her face split into a smile, "So, does this mean that we're going to do this?"

"Do you want to?"

"I want to."

"I want to too!" He then pointed his finger upwards to slow down the haste of their decision making, "But, I do have to check in with Cassie first before I give a definite yes."

Hope excitedly nodded, "Okay," knowing that Cassie would be thrilled for her dad, and encourage him to do it. She then sprang toward Scott, smashing their lips together, as she kissed him. They were going to become Avengers!

* * *

The twentieth floor of the Avenger's Tower was where Hope and Scott had found themselves a fortnight later. That particular storey was dubbed with the name 'The Ready Room' which was a large open space where they trained in.

There, standing along with the duo were Clint Barton, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Tony Stark. They were all facing a matrix of oversized shields, which were wrapped in bulletproof material, that were suspended from various tracks on the ceiling; propelling them into motion; swinging and sliding the large bullet-proof plates. On the other side of the field of moving obstacle lay a target, placed high up on the back wall.

"Okay," Clint spoke up, "Your objective here is really self explanatory. Hit the target." Hope's eyes were already fixed on the objects in motion, trying to figure out if there was a pattern in their movement, and if there was a moment that she could see a clear shot to her target. The shields ran tightly together, intended to force one to use a projectile to hit the target, but Hope was planning on shrinking down and flying through it; making herself into her own bullet.

Tony, with his Iron Man mask up, pointed at the course, "Have you recently watched Galaxy Quest or something?"

Clint looked to the side as he muttered under his breath, in what looked like embarrassment, "Maybe."

Hope had no idea what they were referring to, but Scott seemed to as he chimed in dramatically, "I don't care, I'm not doing it. This episode was badly written!"

Both Clint and Tony pointed at him with excited faces.

Natasha smirked, "Solid movie."

Hope must have let her confusion show for that Steve shrugged at her when he caught her eye line, "I don't understand the reference either." Hope smiled at him, now seeing why Scott had a crush on him. He had an endearing quality about him.

"Nat," Clint then nodded at the spy, "you want to give it a go first?" He then gestured to the course with his head.

Natasha took a few steps forwards. "Alright," she raised her brow, looking the target over as she drew one of her pistols, taking her time as she aimed it. She then fired her weapon, where she hit one of the barriers. She huffed before squeezing the trigger again, followed quickly by a third shot, both hitting different shields. Natasha then lowered her gun as she turned to Clint, awkwardly signing at him with her weapon still in hand while she spoke, "Are you kidding me?"

He shrugged, "I hit it."

Tony then sarcastically spoke up, "Gee, the man literally named Hawkeye hit the target. How surprising."

Clint then looked to him, "Do you want to try it?"

Natasha moved out of Tony's way as he looked over to the challenge, "Huh," he huffed like he was somewhat disinterested. He then flipped down his mask and held up his arm. From the top of the sleeve of his suit, popped out a small missile which he fired. The projectile, with smart target lock, weaved around two of the moving barriers where it didn't have enough space to turn and manoeuvre the rest of its way through; exploding into a swinging shield about halfway down the course. He then flipped open his mask as he suggested, "How about we let the new kids try it before I destroy this setup with more firepower?"

"Tony, you're not blowing up the course," Steve said in defeated annoyance, like he had to hinder his shenaniganry far too often for him to find it enduring.

Tony walked away as he casually threw up his hand, "Yes, dear." He then stopped at the side of the room where he had a glass and a bottle of single malt sitting on a bench. He then skillfully handled it with his armoured gloves; pouring the drink into the glass. Hope couldn't believe the man, he really did come across as arrogant and entitled.

Steve then turned to Scott and Hope, "Well? Do one or both of you want to go next? Show us what you've got," He smiled encouragingly.

"Ah," Scott turned to look at Hope, "What do I do? Go big? Go small. Call an ant?"

"Your ants won't get into this building," Tony called out from his spot at the bench after taking a sip of his drink. "This place is sealed. Even the air ducts have pulsating force fields that would be near impossible for a bug to get through." He then tilted his head in contemplation, "Well, unless it was moving really fast and had perfect timing."

"Well that's the opposite of useful. I'm now Ant-Man without any ants," he threw up his hands in defeat.

Hope shrugged, "Sucks for you," before she activated her helmet; too excited to try out the course to dwell on her partner's problem. She shrunk down and flew straight at the swinging objects; relatively confident that she could see the pattern of them in motion. She quickly manoeuvred around the first few shields, hovering mid-air for the briefest of moments in the centre as she waited for a clear shot to beeline it to the target. When she saw her chance, she took it. Within a second, she crashed into the target with her shoulder, witch made a red light at the top of it switch on, and halted the moving parts of the course. She then turned around and easily flew threw the stationary blockades, growing back to size in front of the others; disengaging her helmet almost at the exact moment her feet touched ground.

"Alright," Steve smiled, "Very nicely done."

Natasha folded her arms, "Not exactly what I was expecting, yet effective," She nodded.

Hope smirked, satisfied with herself. There was a part of her that was nervous to join the team, scared that she wouldn't compare to the rest of them. But now with her small victory, she felt a lot more worthy.

Clint then pressed a button on the remote that he had in hand, which started the course up again. Steve then stepped forwards, taking his shield off his back, as he studied the moving parts before him. "I would like to go next," he positioned his shield like a Frisbee, tilting it so it was almost fully vertical; curling it under his arm. He then threw it with the speed that only a super soldier could acquire. The shield whizzed straight through the first few initial barriers, but then dinged on one of the middle plates that sent it completely off course. It bounced to the top, nicking a cable in the rafters that shut the power off in the room. After a couple seconds, red backup lights came on. Not that they were necessary to see with, since the windows, that bordered the tops of the walls, had sunlight streaming in through them.

"Sure, I can't blow things up, but you can shut down our power?" Tony put his hands out to his sides. The engineer put his drink down, as he walked over to the wall panel that lay next to the elevator. He stepped out of his suit before he removed the cover and started to tinker. "The top floors don't need all their power, right?" He asked rhetorically.

"You're rerouting power?" Natasha asked. "You sure you want to be doing that?"

"She won't notice," he waved her off, "Only taking a little bit." He fidgeted one last time before the lights suddenly came back on. "There–" He slapped the panel shut. "–Problem solved."

Natasha raised her chin as she eyed him, "I give you two minutes tops."

Tony shrugged before he focused on Scott. "Now we finally get to see Lang grow really, really big and Hulk out through the course." He smiled at him with mischievous fascination.

Scott then excitedly slapped repeatedly at Hope's thigh with the back of his hand. "See," he whispered to her, "They saw me when I was at my biggest." He flashed her a twinkling grin.

As much as Hope did not understand the men around her and their weird obsession with size, she smirked at her partner, genuinely happy that he possessed something that was desirable to the team.

"Wait," Clint threw his hands up in the air, "No one is Hulking out through the course. I just got this thing set up."

"Is that why you didn't invite Banner to this rodeo?" Tony asked as he happened to turn his head away as he stepped back into his suit.

Clint scrunched his face as he pressed the button on the remote to restart the course, asking in confusion, "What about me not having inflight tanner for Rio?" Clearly not hearing the man's words properly.

Natasha chuckled as she signed to Clint where he smirked; signing something back to her. Hope had not realised that Hawkeye was deaf until that afternoon, when she'd met everyone in the room for the first time. She had wondered if she should verse herself a little in A.S.L. so that she could better communicate with her new cohort; as she watched the two; not understanding a word that they were signing.

During all the commotion, Steve had retrieved his shield that had bounced to the side of the room; now gaining speed as he started to run to the front of the course. "I'm going to give it another try," he grunted before hurling his shield. This time it soared nearly all the way through, only stopping as it embedded itself into the very last moving barrier in front of the target.

Steve took a sharp breath before he looked over to Clint. "You sure that sequence allows for a straight shot projectile to get through it?"

"Yeah."

"Hands up if you don't believe him," Tony asked the room as he raised his own, pointing to the sky.

Before anyone could engage with his question, the elevator doors opened and in walked Maria Hill, with her eyes focused on her tablet in hand; not bothering to look up to them. Hope's breath hitched as her heart started to race at the sight of her. She had assumed that the agent had connections with the Avengers project to some complicity, she just never thought that she would be there, right then, in front of her.

"One minute and thirteen seconds," Natasha said, obviously to Tony, as she looked down at her watch.

The agent, dressed in a black pantsuit, hair twisted back, went straight to the panel; opening it. She rested the tablet on the edge of the bulkhead before she threw her hand on her hip, studying the sight in front of her. "I wouldn't touch that if I were you," Tony said, "Barton's playground over there is pumping a lot of power through those wires."

Maria sighed before she drew her side arm. She then turned, and from clear across the room, she fired her weapon well over all their heads, towards the active course, where the red light at the target glowed and the matrix had stilled itself, as she hit the target in one shot.

"Whoa," Hope heard Scott from beside her, as he audibly gasped out what she herself was thinking. She was incredible.

"See, I told you!" Clint piped up.

Again, without looking to anyone in the room, she holstered her sidearm and spun back towards the panel. She reached in and yanked at a connection, which resulted with the lights flickering off once again.

"Tony, if you touch this again I'll coat the insides of all your Iron Man suits with super-glue," she calmly warned him as she grabbed her tablet and flipped the panel closed; her back still to all of them.

"Yes, Mother," Tony joked as Maria went for the elevator to leave. "Wait," he called to stop her as his eyes lit up as if an idea had just popped into his head. He turned to address the whole room. "Maria just gave me an idea. We should throw a cocktail party tonight to welcome the newbees."

Maria stiffened her back, as if she were both annoyed that Tony had stopped her from leaving, and for bringing up Hope and Scott's presence there. At least, that's what Hope had made of it.

Natasha asked, "How exactly did Maria just give you this idea?"

"Her shot. A shot –I may add– that she just happened to take right after Steve's disastrous one."

"You guys can do whatever you want," Maria said unemotionally as she called the lift; the doors opening instantly where she walked in. But just after she turned to face the elevator's control panel, she happened to catch Hope's line of sight. Their eyes locked for less than a second, yet, in that briefest of a moment, she made every nerve in Hope's body stand at attention. Maria, quickly looking over to Tony as she continued, "I've got too much to do here, so I won't make it," she then dropped her head, focusing back onto her tablet as she closed the door with a press of a button.

Hope quickly drew a shallow gasp of air, not realising that she was holding her breath. The way Maria looked to her, and then so casually dismissed her, left her emotions in complete disarray.

"Okay, never mind–" Tony turned to the rest of them "–We'll have to do it another day. Maria can't come."

"Come on, Tony," Steve scoffed, "Just because Maria won't be there to play me at pool, doesn't mean we can't still have a party."

"Play you?" Tony almost laughed at him, "More like, have your ass handed to you. And for how many times in a row has it been now? Six? That she's completely destroyed you?"

Steve put his hands to his hips as he huffed out, "Seven, actually."

"I think it's a good idea," Natasha spoke up, derailing them. "Sam should be back by this evening too, so he can join us as well." The spy then looked to Hope, as she gave her an unfamiliar look, like she knew something, while she continued. "And don't worry, Tony. I'll make sure Maria drops by." She then smirked at her before she looked away.

The team continued on bantering, but Hope had stopped listening. She just felt so hurt, angry, and confused by the short appearance Maria had made, that she could no longer focus on the idle conversation that was happening around her. Her heart was pounding and she had a faint pain in the pit of her stomach. She loathed how that woman had always evoked such impactful feelings inside of her.

"Yeah, Hope and I are totally down for a party." The woman snapped out of her trance at the sound of Scott saying her name. "Right?" He then looked to her.

Hope simply nodded her head, forcing herself to be in the moment with her new teammates. "Sounds good to me," she forced a smile.

With that, she allowed herself to be put into a situation where her current boyfriend, the woman whom she had slept with only a short few months ago, and herself, would all be together in the same room; encouraged to interact with one another.

She wasn't necessarily scared that Scott would find out about her and Maria. Because they weren't together at the time when it had happened, so there was no foul play had. In all honesty, she could probably tell him without him getting angry at all. He had always been fair and reasonable towards her; a quality that had made him such a great boyfriend. What did scare Hope, however, was the fact that she didn't want to tell him, regardless of his understanding nature. That she couldn't find it in herself to inform him about their one time encounter, because then she'd have to assure him that it was in the past and meant nothing to her in the present. She hated herself for it, but there was something that she was still holding onto, and she needed a little bit more time to let it go. To get proper closure. It would be best if she had, she had convinced herself. She had a really good thing going for her with Scott, and she didn't want to jeopardise it just because Maria had a way of disorienting her with a single look. Hope would get through this party, and prove to herself that Scott was the right one for her, then she could fully move on and truly be happy.


	8. Eighth

Maria was on the third from the top floor of the Avenger's Tower, which was the unofficial control and operations centre, where she had spent the majority of her time when she was stationed there. Fury had assigned her to oversee the Avenger's project. It wasn't exactly like what she was used to. The Avenger's weren't a military organisation. They didn't follow a chain of command which meant that she didn't exactly make orders, she made requests, and they could choose whether or not they would take them. Sometimes she swore that she was more like a babysitter than a commanding officer; just trying her best to make sure one of them didn't accidentally start an international war, or unknowingly tweet out sensitive information as they tagged their entire high school science club (Peter!).

Fortunately, there were some that were gracious towards her, who would heed her authority before going forward with any group decisions. Like how Steve had recently come to her about him wanting to invite Ant-Man and The Wasp to join the Avengers. She had known that the day would come when he would ask for them. He had already asked Scott onto his silly team when him and Tony where busy turning their lover's quarrel into a full blown Avenger's civil war. Maria had professionally brought his request to Fury, where she'd only offered up the opinion, when asked by her CO, that the duo would probably be a good fit for the team; keeping her personal sentiments to herself. If she were ever to be honest with herself, she really didn't know what her personal feelings were towards his request. She didn't know what was more frightening to her; seeing Hope again, or never seeing her again.

"What are you doing?" Natasha's voice came, ripping her attention away from the computer screen in front of her. Maria had been busy going through the tower's power system; suspecting that the power disruption in the Ready Room that afternoon had left a weakness in the system. The last thing they wanted was a hole somewhere that could cause a security risk.

"Huh?" She looked up to find Natasha strolling over towards her in a cute black and white 50's style cocktail dress.

"What are you doing?" She repeated herself. "The party started an hour ago."

Maria huffed, "I told you guys, I'm not going. I've got stuff to do."

"'Stuff to do'is an odd way of saying that you're hiding from a certain party guest."

Maria's body instantly tensed, "I'm not hiding from anybody. I'm busy trying to make sure we don't get a security breach," she snapped, turning her attention back to the monitor. She then sighed; instantly feeling guilty for the way she'd just barked at her friend, it wasn't Natasha's fault that she was feeling so testy.

From Maria's spot, sitting on a stool at the table that had her laptop set atop it, Natasha walked behind her, gently wrapping her arms around her body while resting her chin on her shoulder. Maria couldn't help but relax a little into her embrace as she breathed in the familiar scent of her perfume. "Now, this is what you're going to do," Natasha spoke with intent, "You're going to pull yourself together, up your seduction game, and go to the party to show her the irresistible lesbian goddess that she's missing out on."

Maria, under any other circumstances, with Natasha talking about any other girl, would have chuckled at her words, but this time she didn't find it amusing or encouraging. "She's with him again, isn't she?" Her words came out in emotional exhaustion, as she couldn't even say Scott's name out loud.

Natasha gently traced her knuckle along Maria's jawline as her voice came softly, "Don't let that stop you from showing her how amazing you are." She then tenderly kissed her cheek as Maria shut her eyes, the confirmation of their relationship status hitting her hard. Before She had time to process her feelings, she felt Natasha pull away from her as she became busy sliding bobby-pins out of her hair.

"What are you doing?"

Natasha, taking her time in answering the question, as she began brushing her fingers through her now unrestrained hair, answered her, "Helping you get ready." She then took a hold of her suit jacket, shimmying it off of her, where Maria defeatedly cooperated with her actions. Natasha then spun Maria in her chair as she looked her over. "Oops," she smirked before she licked her thumb and reached out to wipe at Maria's cheek, "lipstick," she rubbed at the spot where she had kissed her. She then brought her finger to her teeth as she said mischievously, "or maybe we should have left it be," she smiled while biting her nail.

"Tasha!" Maria narrowed her eyes at her where the woman chuckled at her response.

Natasha then grabbed her by the arm, "Stand." She yanked her up to her feet before stepping back to look her over in her white blouse and black dress pants. She then reached over, unbuttoning the top of her shirt before fixing her collar. Then she moved to her sleeves, where she neatly rolled them up her forearms. "Yes, now you look suave," she nodded after she gave her a once over before she linked their arms; leading her to the elevator to escort her to the event on the top floor, as Maria's stomach fluttered with nerves.

* * *

Hope adjusted the strap of her evening dress as she stood next to Scott on the penthouse floor, in the midst of a gathering made up of Avenger's project personnel as well as family and close friends. The two hadn't packed the appropriate attire for their current social undertaking, but oddly enough, when this was pointed out, Tony simply told them that it wouldn't be an issue. That evening both her and Scott had clothing and shoes sent to their rooms. Scott had a black suit and purple dress shirt picked out for him, and Hope had five different designer dresses to choose from. She didn't know who had selected them, but they were all beautiful. She ended up going with a floor length gown that had a nice flow as she moved about in it. It was made with a bright yellow satin with a black opaque fabric that lay over top of it, muting the colour's vivacity. She had liked it the best because it reminded her of her mother's old Wasp suit.

"Ah, there you are," Sam Wilson walked up to Scott and patted him on the back, clearly joining the party late. "So," he smiled, "You finally made it on the team."

"Officially," Scott nodded proudly.

The man then looked over to Hope and smiled warmly, "You must be Scott's better half. I've heard that you can do everything he can do but better."

Her face split into a smile as she extended her hand; instantly liking him. "Hope."

He took her offered hand where they shook. "Sam."

"And yeah, she can do everything better," Scott admitted with zero shame, "She's intense."

"Yeah, scuttlebutt has it you were the only one to hit Barton's target today." He held up his drink, "I commend you. Every time he sets something up for us to hit, like nobody can do it."

Hope's eyes dropped as she looked at her drink in-hand while she corrected him, "Thanks, but technically I wasn't the only person to hit it."

"Commander Hill did it in one shot," Scott elaborated.

"Psh," he waved his hand in the air, "of course she did. Maria's aim is practically on par with Barton's. So she really doesn't count when it comes to his range tests."

Tony walked up to their group, clearly over hearing them, as he interjected, "If Barton would let us engage with his courses like we would in an actual combat situation, Lang and I would have destroyed that target."

"Yeah!" Scott enthusiastically agreed where Hope rolled her eyes at their testosterone induced need to demolish everything.

"Oh!" Tony's eyes lit up as he pointed behind them with his drink, "Speak of the devil." Hope looked over her shoulder to see Maria and Natasha stepping out of the elevator. She then quickly whipped her head forwards in an attempt to ignore her. Two could play at that game. "Steve!" Tony called out to the man a few metres away who was in conversation with Pepper Pots, Happy Hogan, and Clint. "What's your handicap this time?"

"Huh?" The man looked over to him; the question seemed to register in his mind before he turned his head to find Maria entering the room.

"Three drinks Maria?" Clint suggested.

"Didn't you guys do three drinks last time?" Sam asked.

Tony raised his glass above his head in a cheer, "Four drinks Maria!"

"I'm not having four drinks, Tony," Hope could hear Maria call out from a distance behind her.

"Wha--?" Scott looked to Sam with confusion as to what they were talking about.

"So it's gotten to the point where Maria has beaten Steve so many times at pool that we're finding new ways of handicapping her," Sam explained. "We've had her shoot with her left hand only, we've done behind her back shots only. Her playing after three beers."

"That's my favourite," Tony jumped in. "She swears a lot when she's drunk."

"Yet her aim is surprisingly still true," Clint added, as they were all now engaged in the conversation.

Steve then wondered out loud, "What if Scott or Hope are really good pool players and can defeat Maria without handicapping her at all?"

"Huh," Tony looked to the two of them. "Are either of you secretly amazing at the game?"

"Wait," Scott asked, "I thought this was between them?" He waved a pointing finger between Steve and Maria, who seemed to still be behind her somewhere.

"No," Sam stepped towards the captain, "It's about beating Maria. It's just that Steve here is the best we've got." He clapped his friend on the shoulder. "He's just not good enough."

"Unfortunately it's true," Steve humbly admitted.

"Ah," Scott responded in understanding. "Well, I mean, I'd say I'm alright at pool."

"Alright isn't going to cut it," Natasha walked up to them. "How about you, Hope," she eyed her, giving her that same look that she had before. Like she was trying to say something between her words.

Hope shrugged as she answered, "I've literally never played a game of pool in my life," she said in relief; not wanting to face Maria in that moment.

"Bullshit," Tony eyed her.

"Excuse me?" She glared at him, taking offense.

"You grew up in a house that had a red oak pool table in its parlour."

Hope gawked, "How do you know that?"

"'Cause I remember it. I've been to your house before when I was a kid. A few times actually. One time you even threw your sippy cup at my face and screamed at me to leave. Now, I'm not going to say that you, as a toddler, left me with long lasting trauma, but I will say that I've been scared of children ever since meeting you." Tony then threw his hands out to his sides, "so take that as you may."

"I knew this one had good instincts," Steve smiled as he gestured at Hope, where nearly everyone chuckled at the reveal that she had hit Tony with a projectile long before any of them had ever known him. Hope couldn't help but smirk as well, proud of her childhood actions.

"Anyway," Tony casually ignored their laughter. "Is this your hustle?" He eyed Hope, "pretend that you're some novice and then you dust the floor with Maria?"

"No, I've genuinely never played before. I don't think I've ever seen my father's pool table without its cover on. I couldn't even tell you what colour the felt is on it." Hope admitted. She'd once tried playing around with it as a child, but before she could so much as lift the tarp off of it, her dad caught her. The angry yell that came out of his mouth had frightened her so much that ever since then, she'd steered clear of the table all together.

A moment after her explanation, Tony's eyes lit up. "I think we've just found our handicap," he announced to the room. "The Hope handicap!"

Hope shook her head in both fear and confusion, "What?"

Steve then spoke up, "Yeah, what does that mean?"

"Maria will play Steve –per the usual-- however, all of Maria's shots must be taken by Hope."

"How is that not just Steve playing Hope?" Natasha asked.

"Because, the shots will be planned out and lined up by Maria. Hope will essentially act as her prosthetic. So, when it comes to physically taking the shot, Maria will not be allowed to touch the pool cue. Hope will have to do it on her own. The handicap essentially lands on Maria's inability to control the force exerted in her shots, and the accuracy of their aim."

"Sounds intriguing," Steve hummed. "I'm okay with it."

Pepper then chimed in, "as Pool Handicap Commissioner, I'll allow it as long as both Maria and Hope are okay with it."

Hope stiffened her body as she took a deep breath while still trying to come across naturally and unbothered. She then slowly turned to look behind her. There, next to the bar, stood Maria with a beer bottle in hand. The agent looked to her for a moment before taking a swig of her drink as she then slowly walked in the direction of the pool table, off towards the side of the room. "Shouldn't we be adding Lang into this discussion too since --in this scenario-- I'm basically supposed to manhandle his girl?" Maria asked simply, not looking to them in the process.

Scott responded to her with a smile, "Nah, I trust you," taking her words light-heartedly.

Maria reached the table, turning to look at him, where she gave him a tight smile before she gazed over at Hope; but this time, she raised her brows in intrigue. Like she had known that Hope hadn't told him about their prior relationship. "Well, I guess it's up to you, Hope." The way that she said her name was so different from the last time she'd heard it come out of her mouth. This seemed to have a hint of vitriol to it. "Because I'm fine with it," the agent added like she were challenging her.

Hope clenched her jaw; there was no way she was going to be the one to back down. Besides, she had a point to prove to herself. "It's fine by me too," she practically shoved her glass into Scott's hand before making her way to the table.

"Yes!" Tony cheered, "Now hopefully Steve will have his ass handed to him by two people instead of one."

"So much for it being about beating Maria there, hey, Tony?" Steve called out to the man rhetorically as he approached the table from behind Hope.

Maria turned away from them as she put down her beer and grabbed a pool cue from off the wall, where she began chalking the end. "Loser sets up the table."

"Yeah, yeah, I know the drill," Steve sighed as he began taking the balls out from all the pockets; proceeding to rack them up, all while Maria casually watched him. She was leaning on her cue stick, like she were some old Hollywood film star like Humphrey Bogart or someone else equally to his likeness; sporting her button down shirt, suit pants, and shiny dress shoes; one casually crossed over the other, as she had the weight of her body resting on one foot. All she was missing was a cigarette hanging out of her mouth to complete the picture. God, she sure was putting up a challenge for Hope, as the woman had to hold back from biting the bottom of her lip at the sight of her. "Are you breaking?" Steve looked to the agent.

"You can. I'll give you an opportunity to sink some balls before I even get to the table," Maria smirked at him.

The man laughed, "You're too kind." He then looked to Hope. "You know, you're an Avenger now. Which means you're one of us. So if you want to pretend like you're the handicap that Tony has tried to convince everyone that you are, it would be greatly appreciated for the team."

"You're telling her to purposely throw my game?" Maria eyed him. "That's just pathetic, Cap."

"Is it though?" Hope crossed her arms. "I mean, If I suck, I'll essentially be the one behind your downfall and not Steve," she eyed Maria. "Bring my street cred right up," she pointed to the sky with her finger.

"You wouldn't dare," Maria warned her through what looked like a suppressed smile of amusement.

Hope smirked mischievously, "Maybe I would. I haven't decided yet," she threatened her.

"Oh, this is going to be interesting," Steve nodded at their back-and-forth before he took the first shot, breaking up the cluster and sinking a ball in the process. "Stripes," he announced what balls he was now shooting for. Both women turned to the table to watch him lineup his second shot, where he easily sunk his green ball, followed by a third where he sunk his orange. Hope was impressed, he was really good, which made her wonder just how amazing Maria must have been. He then attempted for the purple ball, but it bounced off the edge of the pocket. "Nope," he dropped his head at his failed attempt.

Maria just eyed him with intimidation as she moved to the table. She then allowed her gaze to fall onto the game in play. She stood there for awhile, studying it as her eyes darted around the table. Hope then looked to Steve, hoping for an explanation. "She's playing out all her moves in her head so she can guarantee a doable shot for herself after all her previous ones," he explained; clearly understanding her look of curiosity. "Playing pool with a genius military strategist is definitely an experience."

"Okay," Maria's eyes were still fixated on the table as she walked to the other side of it, "I got it." She then waved Hope over, "I need my handicap."

Hope rolled her eyes as she walked over to her. Maria turned to her, looking up as she furrowed her brows, she then gazed down to her feet. "Shoes." Hope understood, where she kicked her heels off under the table. "Better," the agent nodded at the fact that she'd dropped in hight, now about two inches shorter than Maria, before she gently took Hope by the hips, positioning the woman in a specific spot in front of the table, where she then stood behind her; looking over her shoulder. "Kay, take this," Maria passed the stick to her. "Now this is called a cue stick, you hit the cue ball with it," She said a little patronisingly.

"Wait. You're going too fast. Let me go get a pen and paper so I can write this all down," Hope shot back sarcastically; turning her head to see Maria smirking at her retort. Hope then quickly looked away in a half-assed attempt of hiding her own smile.

"Okay, so we're going for the blue, number two, ball at the side there," Maria pointed, "Where we'll get it to hit the bumper there, and then bounce off the back bumper there," her finger moved to her mentioned locations, "and knock it into the yellow ball there which will –hopefully-- sink it into that corner pocket."

"Whoa, Maria, you're certainly not going easy there for her first shot," Steve commented with concern.

"I'd rather her take real shots. Besides, she's getting enough of an education on easy shots, and how to play yourself into a corner, just by watching you."

He shook his head. "That hurt."

Hope's face split into a smile as Maria's words seem to indicate that she had faith in her abilities. "Line me up," Hope demanded, ready to try out the shot as she leaned over the table with the cue stick.

"Alright then," Maria pressed her body right into her as she bent over her; lowering herself against Hope's back; while she practically rested her chin on top of her shoulder. The woman beneath took a sharp breath in response to the body contact. "Okay," Maria guided the pool cue, touching its tip to the side bumper of the table, pressing hard into it to leave a blue chalk mark onto the green felt. "This is where we're aiming to hit." Maria then brought the cue back as Hope naturally lined it up, targeting the white ball with the chalk mark. Maria then slid Hope's guiding hand up a little, as she gently repositioned her fingers around the cue, "If you hold it like this you'll have more control." The way her fingers threaded into her own made Hope close her eyes as a memory of Maria playing with her fingers in bed came flashing back to her. Maria then slid her other hand down the stick, which was by her hip, to find Hope's grip on the cue. As she laid her hands on top of hers, Hope's heart began to pound in her chest. Maria pushed at the cue, sliding it back and forth through Hope's fingers, where Hope fluttered her eyes open, trying to snap herself back into the game. "How does this feel?" Maria inquired. Hope's mind started to race, not knowing what exactly she was asking of her. "Does the spacing between your hands feel okay? Do you feel in control?" Hope nodded as she gulped, scared that her voice would fail her in that moment, with the irony of the question not lost on her. "Good," Maria then ever so slightly pushed Hope's hand, that was resting on the table, to the side; repositioning their aim on the target while bringing the thicker end of the stick in a little more into Hope's body. "Okay, this is looking good. So, just slide the cue as straight as you can into the centre of the ball, and hit it relatively hard, but not too hard."

Hope, now feeling nervous for her shot, not wanting to let Maria down, almost laughed out. "Yeah, sure. Whatever that means."

Maria then turned her head, speaking right into her ear as she said, "you got this," which sent a shiver down her neck. She then removed her hands away from Hope's grip on the stick.

Before Hope had an opportunity to fall out of alignment, she took the shot where Maria quickly wrapped her arm around her ribs, yanking them both back into a proper standing position while they watched the cue ball hit the blue ball perfectly into the chalk mark, It then bounced to the back, off the wall and right into the yellow ball that sank into the corner pocket, which Maria had perfectly planned for.

Hope gasped with a smile; extremely pleased with herself. "Told yah," Maria hummed as she let go of her, before walking around the table.

"I see where your allegiances now lie," Steve sighed. "Though, I can't say that I'm disappointed. You're at least honourably fulfilling your assignment."

"Of kicking your ass?" Hope smirked at him.

"Excuse me?" Maria interjected in the midst of her trash talk. "You're assignment is to do as I say while I kick his ass," she gave her a playful look of warning.

"I'm the one physically taking the shots. Do you also take credit for all of The Avenger's successes too?"

Maria smirked, "only for the operations that I plan for them." Hope bit down on her smile while shaking her head at her. "Now come here, my handicap," Maria waved her over, but this time in a playful manner, as she looked down to the game in session.

Hope huffed as she walked over to her where Maria was quick to pull her into her arms once again which made Hope's face split into a grin as she had to keep herself from giggling at the woman's possessive actions. Hope was thankful that she was facing away from both Maria and Steve, as well as all the party guests. She didn't want it known that she was enjoying the way that she was being handled by the woman. "This one's straight forwards," Maria pointed to the table as she kept her one hand wrapped around Hope's stomach, "Hit the purple ball into the side pocket."

"Okay," Hope leaned over the table as Maria wasted no time in letting go of her body, only to push her chest up against her upper back; again, resting her chin over her shoulder.

"Bring your hips back," Maria placed her hands around her waist and pulled her closer into herself, which made Hope silently gasp, "and lower your body so you can line up better with your target." Hope desperately tried to follow her instructions as if she weren't bothered by Maria's painfully distracting touch. As quickly as she could, she lined up her target. Maria let go of her waist as she brought her hands to rest atop of Hope's like she had the last time. "Don't aim exactly for the centre of the purple one. We want to hit it ever so slightly on its left," She then pushed the cue a little to reposition her aim.

"Okay, I've got this," Hope felt confident. "Hands off my cue stick," She warned her; trying to gain a little control back.

"Demanding," Maria said as her tone rang with amusement; removing her hands away from her. Hope then took the shot, where she sunk the ball without issue.

"Yes," she cheered under her breath before the two moved upright. However, unlike the last time, Hope pushed them up, trying to prove that she wasn't just her powerless handicap who was willing to be totally dominated over. Though, she popped up a little too fast where Maria seemed to have lost her footing as she grabbed Hope's arm, falling backwards. With lightning reflexes, Hope dropped the pool cue to the floor as she spun around and yanked Maria safely into her arms as their bodies crashed together.

Maria yanked her head back as she narrowed her eyes at her. "You did that on purpose."

"I purposely shoved you off, yes. But I did not trip you on purpose. That was your own clumsiness."

"I am not clumsy, you're just aggressive."

"And who's the pot calling the kettle black here?"

Maria pursed her lips as she unwrapped her arms from around Hope's neck; sliding them down to rest on her bare shoulders. "Okay, you may have a bit of a point there," her beautiful sapphire eyes twinkled as the agent conceded. Hope then started to chuckle at her, where Maria joined in; their laughter growing together. It was a refreshing release for Hope as she let loose while holding the vibrating woman in her arms. She could physically feel her tension lessening in that moment; almost forgetting the months that had passed since the last time she'd held her in her arms like that.

"So how goes it?" Hope heard Scott's voice, which had instantly halted her giggles as she rapidly let go of Maria and spun around to see him approaching them at the table.

"Honestly, It's intimidating," Steve acknowledged the man. "One time, during the war, I found myself in front of two female wolves fighting each other in the bush. Eventually, one of them dominated the other, and then the victor turned on me. Well, this game is reminding me of that moment. Only this time I fear that instead of there being a single victor, the wolves are revving up to destroy me as a united front."

"Well, the plus side to that is, at least you'll go down quicker." Scott nodded his head, "spend less time suffering."

Steve smiled, "It's a small mercy."

"That's quite the description there, Steve. You really painted a picture for us all with your riveting words," Maria said dryly as she bent over to scoop up their pool cue that was laying on the ground. He gave her a sheepish look while taking a single step back; increasing his distance from her.

"By the way," Scott stepped towards Maria in what looked like nervousness, as it seemed like he was trying to shift the conversation, "We haven't actually officially met yet. So, it's nice to meet you, I'm Scott." He then shook his head like he'd just heard how his words sounded, "I mean, you obviously know who I am, of course. Not 'cause like I'm Ant-Man or whatever 'cause not everyone knows who Ant-Man is," he scrunched his face as he flailed for words, "No but because you like know everything. Well, not everything, but you're like a high up agent so you know stuff. Stuff that probably no one else knows," He nodded. "You know what I mean."

Maria stared at him for a moment. "Yes, it's nice to meet you too, 4-7-5-7-2-0-8-9-7," she then gave him a tight smile before turning around to grab her beer.

"That's my social security number," he gawked. He then looked to Hope. "She called me by my social security number," he whispered where she nodded sympathetically for the both of them.Why was his normal goofy behaviour, the behaviour that she usually found charming, bothering her so much in that moment?

"Maria," Coulson walked up to them, "Fury's on the line for you," he held out his mobile phone. "He said he's not getting through to the tower."

"Dammit, Stark and his meddling," she huffed while putting her beer down on the edge of the pool table, as she thrust the cue into Scott's hand while she passed by him to Coulson. She took the phone and walked towards the elevator as she answered it.

"She seems pleasant," Scott said in a silly sarcastic manner.

Steve laughed as he responded to his quip, "Yeah," he sighed, "She's probably one of my closest friends here, to be honest. She's very intimidating, as you can see. Yet, she really does have a heart of gold."

"I've got one of those too," He slid his arm around Hope's lower back, where she uncomfortably stiffened her spine at his touch while she watched Maria, in the distance, step into the elevator. Just as the agent turned around inside the lift, still on the phone, they caught each other's gaze, only for Hope to awkwardly break it as she turned her head to look at Scott. Just overall too uncomfortable with the whole situation; trying to not show her own vulnerability to the other woman.

"Why did Maria just leave?" Tony called at them from a little ways away.

"Fury," Coulson answered.

"Is she coming back?"

"I doubt it," The agent shrugged.

"Damn," Tony sighed, "Fury's not even here, yet he still finds a way to bring the party down." He then turned away, going back to his conversation with Pepper.

"Well, I guess that's our game." Steve looked to the couple, "I'm going to the bar, do either of you want anything?"

"Nah, I'm cool," Scott grinned, obviously still star struck by the captain, "Thanks for offering though."

"Here," Natasha slid in to the other side of Hope, making her jump a little by her sudden presence, as the spy held up a glass in front of her before she could answer Steve. "I already brought you something. Jewel of Russia. Best vodka you'll ever drink," she smirked at her as she lowered her voice, "Thought you might need something strong."

Hope wasn't the biggest vodka fan, yet she gratefully took it, needing something to level her out. "Thank you," she nodded before taking a healthy sized gulp of her drink.

"No problem," Natasha eyed her with interest before casually walking towards Steve. "Come on," she linked her arm with his, "I'll fix you a drink." She then pulled him off towards the bar.

Hope gazed off at the two leaving, her mind lost in confusion; as it was trying to process the emotions coursing through her body. "Hey, you alright?" Scott rubbed at the spot on her lower back that his hand was still resting on, which made her involuntarily step away from the contact.

"What?" She turned to him.

He gave her a tender look, "I don't know, you seem kinda out of it all of a sudden."

"Just tired," she concluded. "It kinda just hit me."

"Well we've had a very long and adventurous day."

"Yeah," Hope felt desperate to escape, "I think I might sneak away and go to my room."

"Sure, do you want me to come with? I could call it a night too," he sweetly offered.

She shook her head, "No, stay. Mingle. Enjoy yourself. I'll see you in the morning at breakfast." She made sure to communicate that she wished to be alone that evening.

He nodded with a smile, "Okay," before he bent down to kiss her, where she barely made an effort to kiss him back. She oddly felt like she was somehow not supposed to be doing that anymore with him. "Goodnight."

Hope stepped back in befuddlement as she repeated back, "goodnight," before turning to grab her shoes. She then slugged back the rest of her drink while she walked away; depositing her empty glass onto a bar table as she made her way to the elevator. Luckily, no one called her out as she was slipping out, however she did catch Natasha's eye as she loaded into the lift where the woman nodded at her in acknowledgement.

When Hope got to her lodgings she discarded her shoes at the door before she dropped into her bed; face planting into her mattress. Her mission was a bust. She didn't prove to herself what she'd wished to. On the contrary, she was now even more conflicted than ever. Everything was so much simpler back home when it was just her and Scott, but now nothing made sense. "Fuuuuck," Hope groaned into her sheets; not prepared in the slightest for the days to follow with Maria now back in her life.

* * *

It was late into the night once Maria finally got to fixing the communications issue after she was done with what Fury had needed her to deal with, regarding some follow up work from an old mission of hers that suddenly became relevant again.

She turned off the lights in the control room as she made her way down to the floor that held her apartment. However, just as she reached her door, she couldn't bring herself to go inside. All she could think of was the image of Scott with his arm possessively around Hope's body as she left the party earlier that evening. It brought her physical pain as she imagined that they'd probably be in bed together at that very moment, with his arms around her in a similar manner. She sighed, becoming angry with herself for being so affected by Hope's relationship with the man.

Suddenly, her feet started to take her down the hallway, past her room, as she stopped at a different door at the end, where she knocked in frustrated desperation.

It didn't take long before the door opened, revealing Natasha in shorts and a tank top, ready for bed. She locked eyes with Maria, cocking her head to the side in intrigue before saying, "I'm not her," as she stepped back, allowing Maria entry.

Maria walked in, practically slamming the door behind her as she said in a husky voice, "noted," before closing the gap between them. Natasha met Maria's hungry lips with her own as she freely allowed the taller woman to push her down on top of her bed.

There was no way in which Maria was going to allow herself to wallow that night. She would, too, have her pleasures. She wasn't some pathetic person who was going to just sit on the sidelines and wait as life passed her by. She'd take actions for her own well being, and that certainly didn't include pining over Hope.


	9. Ninth

It had been three days since the party, and Hope had poured all her energy into training with the team. She hadn't even seen Maria since that evening around the pool table. She didn't know if she was out of the building or if they'd just happened to be missing each other, but either way, she had dared not ask in regards of her whereabouts.

Hope was actually enjoying herself with the Avengers. Both her and Scott were getting along nicely with everyone. She even had a chance to meet Bruce Banner the day before, as he had stopped in to say hello. Her and Banner ended up having a super interesting, in depth conversation about quantum theory. It was the first time that someone with seven PhDs had ever picked her brain. She found the experience quite delightful and confidence boosting.

At present, they were all back in the Ready Room working up to a field training day at some point during the following week to come, before Hope and Scott were to return back home. Currently, they were taking turns sparing with one another. The first to fight that day were Natasha and Sam. It was an interesting duel; him with his wings and her with her advanced mixed martial arts combat style. She seemed to be the better overall fighter with very honed skills, as she continually landed hits on him. However, he proved resilient and eventually found an opening where he managed to subdue her by using his strength alone. In turn, winning the match.

Now it was Scott's turn as he was in the ring with Steve. Her partner wasn't too pleased to be up against him since, supposedly, Steve was the best in a fight and rarely lost in a match. Scott evaded Steve a few times by shrinking down in size, but the man caught on quickly to his game, and ended up snatching him in his hand when Scott did a shrunken flying kick at him, where Steve threw him to the ground; only for Scott to grow back to size as his ass hit the mat.

Just as the man began sitting up on the floor, Maria had entered the room. She was wearing solid black fatigues with her hair back in a ponytail, like she had just come back from an active assignment.

Her mission ready look was so powerful andarousing to Hope that it had made her want to spar with her far more than anybody else. She just had the urge to manhandle her to the ground in opposition from how Maria had pushed her about at the pool table. She wanted to see her try and fight her way out of it too, and feel her struggling from underneath her body once again.

Maria had made her way over to Tony, who was standing on the opposite side of the ring as Hope. Maria was doing her same routine that she had done before; head in her tablet as she barely acknowledged the room. The man, in his suit with his helmet open, stepped to her automatically; like he was expecting her. They started talking amongst themselves as it looked like he was giving directions to her on the tablet.

Well, Hope wasn't having any of it this time; she was not to be ignored by her again. So she then brazenly stepped into the ring next to her partner, who was just getting up to his feet, and said, "It's okay, Scott, I've got him," while she eyed Steve with determination.

Scott nodded his head while panting, "Oh thank God," while rubbing his lower back as he limped out of the ring. "Make sure to watch out for his everything 'cause he's…" Scott turned to gesture at Steve who was decked out in his uniform with his shield on his back, "yeah, that."

"Kay," She said without a hint of concern before she activated her helmet. Without hesitation, Hope ran at Steve where he got into a stance, preparing himself for an attack, but to his confusion, Hope didn't try to make contact, instead she dove to the ground right at his feet, where she shrunk down right before the moment her palms hit the mat between his legs. She then did a front handspring; and just as she pushed herself up off the floor, she grew back to size, where she then grabbed Steve's shield, right off his back, as she flipped over to her feet, now behind him.

They both instantly spun around to face each other, but as Hope turned, she swung the shield right at Steve's face with a tight two handed grip. The man, with both inhuman speed and strength, moved to catch it with an extended reach, but unbeknownst to him, Hope was counting on that, and had shrunken down again; using his unwavering grip on the shield to slingshot her miniaturised body over the vibranium plate, she then quickly grew back to size; making contact with her foot in his face, which sent him hurtling down to the mat.

Hope, before clumsily falling onto Steve's body, speedily shrunk down and flew out of the man's space, before growing back to size; her feet once again touching ground. She looked to the fallen captain who had put his hand out, with his head still on the mat, "Alright, I yield," he huffed.

She deactivated her helmet, completely pleased with herself, as she turned to Maria, making sure that the agent had noticed her handy work. To her satisfaction, Maria's gaze was already fixed on her which made her feel utterly jubilant.

Sam then spoke up from behind her at the edge of the ring, "So ah, should we just go ahead and make Hope the team leader now or…?" Hope then turned to look to him where he smiled at her, giving her a thumbs up with a wink.

"Wow," Steve laboured while addressing Sam as he dragging himself up off the floor, "Thanks for the vote of confidence there, buddy." His friend only laughed in response where Steve smirked at him once he found his balance.

The captain then focused on Hope where he nodded, "That was very impressive." He then nursed the side of his face. "I haven't been hit in the jaw like that in a very long time."

"Is that why you yielded?" Tony asked, "Didn't want to get hit unconscious by her next blow? Because that would have been very educational for all of us to see." Steve threw his hands on his hips as he sighed in reaction to his jab. Hope then turned to see Tony smiling innocently at Steve, not that she had cared much for their little tiff; for her focus was suddenly ripped away as her gaze was glued to Maria as she was now walking away and out of the room.

It was like the high of her victory just faded away along with Maria. She sighed to herself while stepping off the mat to stand next to Scott, where the man smiled, while lightly elbowing her, as he whispered, "I knew you could do it." Hope simply nodded, half-heartedly acknowledging his words.

The rest of that morning continued on with sparring, they'd just kept rotating through partners. The only other person Hope had an opportunity to fight with during their session was Clint, who she had fairly easily defeated. She was merciful in her final take down move when she'd tossed him to the mat, with his head scissored between her thighs; flipping him. She had made sure not to power kick him in the face like she had with Steve; knowing that the super soldier was the only one there who could have handled that, save Tony in his Iron Man suit.

Once they'd breaked for lunch, Hope and Scott went to the side of the room to take off their suits. The others were always faster at getting out of their gear than them, so the team had just been allowing the two to take their time as they made their own ways down to the cafeteria after them.

Once the rest of the team was gone, Scott turned to Hope in what looked like nervousness. "Are you embarrassed by me?"

Hope looked to him in utter confusion, "What?"

He sighed, "Ever since we've arrived here, you've been acting kind of distant. And even just this morning, after I got my ass kicked by Cap, you stepped up like you had to show the others you weren't pathetic like me." He looked to her with concern, "are you embarrassed that I'm bringing you down?"

Horrified by the conclusions Scott had gone to; Hope tried her best to assure him as she said, "you're not pathetic and you're not bringing me down." She then began to unzip her suit and peel it off of her as she continued, "And besides, we're here because of you, not me. I wasn't in Germany, remember?"

"Is that what it's about then?" He then too began stripping off his suit. "Germany?" He asked softly, as if he didn't want to upset her. "You feel like you have to prove yourself independently of me because you weren't there with the rest of us?" He then muttered, "and you're still kinda mad at me for not inviting you, which put you in this particular situation in the first place?"

"No. I'm over you not inviting me. I told you this weeks ago." She sighed, "And honestly, by what I've heard you guys saying about it, I'm actually glad that I wasn't there. It all sounded pretty petty."

"Yeah no, it was," he nodded and shrugged. "I'm not going to argue with you there."

She hummed, "Good," with a small smile as she stepped out of her suit.

"So, there's nothing bothering you then?" he asked with what looked like concern.

She turned her head away from his troubled eyes, as she focused on her suit in hand while she began zipping it up; feeling the weight of her guilt crushing down on her. She was being stupidly childish. Here she had someone who cared for her so deeply, who she too cared for in return, and yet she'd been ignoring him in order to show off in front of someone else.

She then shrunk her suit, before she put it into a small drawstring bag, and then into her yoga pant pocket while she shrugged her shoulders, "Well, I am kind of hungry," she forced a smirk; looking at him as she picked the cowards way out.

He smiled, yet she could tell that he knew that she wasn't being completely honest with him. "I can help you with that." He then shrunk down his own suit and tucked it away before extending his arm to her. "May I escort you to the dining hall?"

Hope nodded her head as she stepped forwards, wrapping her arm around his, "That'd be great." She then leaned in and kissed him tenderly on the cheek, loving him for the patients that he was extending her, while hating herself for needing it in the first place.

They thenleft together where she had hoped to enjoy a meal with him by her side and feel a sense of normalcy once again.

* * *

Maria hadn't eaten all day, so shortly before noon she'd decided to carry her work down to the cafeteria with her, and grab a bite while lunch was being served. The floor was completely empty when she'd arrived, with the exception of the kitchen staff. It wasn't much of an oddity to be the only one in the mess hall when so few personnel were stationed in the tower. The Avengers project really was a skeleton crew endeavour, in which they were aiming to grow over time.

The agent was situated at a long picnic bench style table with a tray of food, her tablet, and a stack of files, that were annoyingly not digitalised yet, in front of her. The woman pecked at her lunch as she worked. She was a little behind; having to still go over Tony's plans for upgrading the tower's security network. Her three day assignment to Montréal had really thrown a wrench in her Avenger's duties. Not that her work piling up on her was the true culprit of her stress. What had really sent her over the wall was her little trip to the Ready Room that day, when she had to ask Tony for the updates that she was currently perusing through on her tablet.

Maria had stupidly thought that her night with Natasha while coupled with her short trip out of country, had done the trick and put her on the path that would move her right on past Hope, but unfortunately seeing her again, like a warrior goddess kicking the shit out of her genetically modified super soldier friend, had made her break a sweat all the way from her brow to the pads of her toes. Then, to boot, Hope had the audacity to deactivate her helmet; revealing her beautifully flushed face while she looked over to Maria with the most satisfied smile. It was like she was purposely taunting her while the agent couldn't so much as remember how to breathe.

Maria huffed; pushing the image of Hope's victorious defeat from her mind as she glanced up and took note of the Avengers entering the cafeteria; heading towards the buffet table. Though, they were short their two new recruits. She tried not to speculate on where Hope and Scott were; forcing herself to get back to checking over Tony's work.

Suddenly she saw a hand reach over her shoulder and take a hold of her empty mug that was sitting in front of her. She didn't have to look up to know who it was, she just smiled to herself and continued looking over the data on her tablet. A few minutes later she saw Sam and Tony sitting down at the table next to hers where Steve put his tray down across from them. Before the captain sat down he went over to Maria and put her mug back in its original place; now full of fresh coffee. "Thank you," she smiled at him with appreciation; always finding the gesture very enduring.

"You're welcome," he replied before he walked back over to his food, respectfully leaving her to her work. They had often given her her space when she had set up shop down in the cafeteria, but on days when she was simply eating, and didn't bring along her temporary office, they'd always gather around to visit with her.

Maria picked up her drink in both hands, allowing its warmth to comfort her, as she took a sip. She focused her attention to the back of the room where Clint and Natasha were tucked away having their lunch. Due to Clint's hearing aids and their inability to tune out surrounding noises, he'd often separate himself from the crowd when he could, and If Natasha was around, he'd even take out his aids. Then the two would communicate using sign language only. It was interesting, even though many of them knew ASL, Natasha seemed to be the sole person he trusted to be around while making himself vulnerable; by removing his ability to hear.

Maria loved watching the two from afar. Natasha always sat in the corner so she had eyes on the room, and Clint sat with his back to everyone, like the only person in his world was Natasha. They always had this aura about them, with the comfort of an old married couple, yet having the spark of two newlyweds. What they shared was so pure and merely being present to it had always made Maria feel good right down to her core. Like a reminder that there was something in humanity that was worth fighting for.

Then from the corner of her eye she noticed Hope and Scott walking over to the buffet table. She sighed, putting her mug down before hiding away back into her tablet as an avoidance technique.

After a few minutes she'd heard footsteps approaching her, where she then gazed up to see an apprehensive looking Scott holding his tray of food, with Hope still at catering with a facial expression that she could only read as annoyance towards him for being there. "Hey," the man started while Hope slowly made her way over to him. "So in prison I learned that when you're the new guy you should always make nice with the scariest person in the yard. So, even though I'm kind of terrified right now, may I sit down and join you?"

"Your muscle has just arrived," Maria acknowledge Hope as she'd reached them, "So you really have no reason to be terrified," she said flatly.

"Scott, why don't you let her get back to her work and we'll go sit somewhere else?" Hope suggested strongly to him, while avoiding Maria's gaze.

"It's fine," Maria surprised herself as she said, "you guys can sit." Her voice even shockingly had a slight hint of warmth too.

Scott grinned as he bustled around to the other side of the table to sit across from her, where Maria could hear Hope sigh in aggravation as she walked around to sit next to him.

"I gotta say," Scott said, "I feel kind of weird, all of us sitting here at what's clearly the Plastic's table, and none of us are wearing pink."

Maria couldn't help but smirk, knowing exactly what he was referring to, while she said, "It's not Wednesday. We're fine."

Scott's face then lit up, which made Maria bite down a smile. 'Dammit,' she thought,as she could feel her rigidness instantly soften in regards to her feelings towards him.

"Is this another movie reference that I'm not getting?" Hope eyed them suspiciously.

"Seriously, Hope," Scott threw his hands up in the air, "How have you not seenMean Girls?It's a cinematic masterpiece!"

"You know I don't watch movies all that often," she defended herself.

Scott looked to Maria. "See, this is what I have to deal with. Like the other day she told me that she's never even seen aStar Warsmovie before. How is a person supposed to react to something like that?"

Maria genuinely was taken aback by this information. She shook her head in disbelief, "Well I hope you at least got her to read out a CAPTCHA test --you know-- make sure she's not a robot."

"Oh," his eyes widened like he'd just realised the possibility, "I didn't even think of that."

"Yeah," Maria nodded, "Skynet is out there. She could be one of them." The woman had assumed that he'd get her Terminator reference.

"She did just take down Cap without breaking a sweat."

"Not unlike a T-1000."

"Or Arnold Schwarzenegger himself," he pointed at her in enthusiastic agreement, clearly on the same page as her, as he was picking up what she was dropping.

"Okay," Hope dropped her gaze to her plate, "I'm ignoring you two nerds as I sit here eating my carrots like an actual human-not robot," Hope stabbed into her cooked vegetables with her fork and shoved them into her mouth. She then looking up to give Scott the evil eye while she chewed her food.

Scott then flashed his girlfriend a lopsided smile while looking at her with a tender mischievousness, which made Maria want to cry. She quickly lifted her tablet and focused back on its screen while she tried to collect herself.

Scott so obviously loved Hope and it was overwhelming to her. In a way, she was relieved that the man Hope was with seemed to be so fun, kind, and appreciative towards her, but in another way, it was agony that she wasn't the one who was with her to openly pour all of her love into, like he could. It was also frustrating as hell that Maria didn't hate him either. She so desperately wanted to hate him. It would have made everything easier for her if he'd just been a jerk, then she'd have no issue in trying to steal her away from him, but he wasn't a jerk, he was annoyingly pleasant and he seemed to make Hope happy.

"Hey, Scott!" Tony called out to him from the other table, "I'm going down to my lab before we start up again for the afternoon. You still wanna see the 32 Flathead Roadster?"

Scott leaped to his feet and answered in excitement, "I wanna see all the cars!"

"Okay, we should head down now then." Tony stood up to clear his tray while Scott started shoveling food into his mouth as he hunched over the table.

"Slow down you're going to choke," Hope said as if she were genuinely concerned.

"Yeah," Maria couldn't help but interject, "If she has to give you the heimlich, you're going to be crushed to death by her robo-arms."

Scott swallowed the large lump of food in his mouth. "This inside joke that we have together about Hope being a robot," he touched his hand to his heart, "is just so damn special to me." He shook his head vigorously with such sincerity in his eyes that he had managed to make Maria smirk, even through her saddened state.

"Are you going to let him test drive something?" Sam asked Tony where Scott whipped his head to the side in shock.

Tony looked to Scott and shrugged, "I guess we could let him take something out for a spin."

Scott gasped while Steve stood up, "I want to see him in the Flathead. My neighbour used to have that exact car when I was a teenager."

"Yes, yes, we all know this, Grandpa," Tony sighed. "Shall we go?" The man started for the elevator where Steve and Sam followed, obviously both wanting to see Scott in one of Tony's luxury cars.

Scott grabbed his tray and bounded towards them, where he then abruptly stopped and spun around to face Hope. "Are you coming?"

"I'll join you in a bit. I'd actually like to chew my food withoutinhaling it."

"Okay," he blurted, visibility too excited to try and convince her otherwise, "See you later!" He then turned back around where he was quick to shout over his shoulder and wave his hand, "And I'll see you when I see you, Maria!" He then dumped his tray on the cart at the elevator before he piled into the lift with the guys.

Maria, now realising that it was just Hope and her at the table alone, started awkwardly scrolling through her tablet; totally failing to concentrate on what she was doing, just needing for her hands to be busy and for her attention to not be fixed on the woman in front if her.

After the most uncomfortable minute, Maria glanced up to find Hope pushing vegetables around on her plate with her fork. Maria couldn't help but smile, she looked almost childlike as she played with her food.

"How is it now with your mom back?" Maria couldn't believe that she'd just so boldly asked; hoping that she hasn't crossed a line.

Hope blinked as she looked to her. Then, a soft smile fell across her face as she answered, not seeming bothered at all by the question, "Amazing actually. She's just as kind and strong as I remembered her being when I was a kid. I don't know how she managed being in the quantum realm for so long --while not only keeping her sanity in tact-- but her humanity too. It's remarkable."

Maria smiled, genuinely so happy for her. "Well, if she's anything like you, I can't say I'm all that surprised to hear." Hope then dropped her head, like she were embarrassed by her comment, which made Maria quickly push along. "So your dad must be overjoyed too, hey?"

Hope lifted her head again to look at her while she replied, "Yeah, he is. It's just." She cocked her head to the side, "I think I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop."

"How do you mean?"

"My dad," She scrunched her face before looking back down at her food, "ah --I've never actually told anybody this before-- but ah, he used to be kind of erratic during his Ant-Man days."

"Erratic?" She asked softly.

Hope slowly nodded her head, "Sometimes, when he got worked up he'd take it out on my Mom," She then made eye contact with Maria, "Like, physically," she'd clarified.

Maria gasped in a small voice, "Oh."

"It didn't happen often. She knew to watch herself when he raised his voice." She then quickly added, "And he never hit me." Then, like she were being swept up in memory, she sighed, "Though, my mom had always told me to hide in my wardrobe whenever I heard shouting. Which I suppose would indicate that she never quite trusted him around me either."

"Fuck." Maria felt a sense of powerlessness; wanting to go back in time and somehow make everything right for her. She wanted to protect her.

"Yeah," Hope slowly nodded.

"What happened after she disappeared?"

"He stopped being Ant-Man and began to mellow out. Not that it did much. I still pushed him away for the majority of my life." Hope sighed, "But he has been getting better over the past few years, so there is that."

"Well that's good, right? He's changing."

"Yeah," her voice sounded hollow.

"But you still can't shake the haunting memories of the last time your parents were together." Maria understood.

"Even though I know better."

Maria sighed, "I'm convinced that we're all stuck with our childhood traumas no matter how much we tell ourselves that they're over and in the distant past."

"Well, hopefully confronting them will lessen their impact."

Maria chuckled with skepticism, "Yeah, let me know how that works out for you."

Hope studied her for a moment before she awkwardly started, "I'm assuming you haven't confronted your parents since… well…"

"Since they kicked me out?" Maria helped her out. "Actually I have. I went back home in my mid-twenties for my little brother's funeral."

"Your brother died?" She asked with so much tender concern in her eyes that it sent a ripple of warmth through Maria's body.

"Yeah. Snowmobile accident. He was seventeen."

"I'm sorry," She shook her head.

"It's okay. I really didn't know him well in the end. We were close when he was my kid brother, but after I left home, I didn't get to see him anymore." Suddenly all the pain of her past came flooding back, as she fought off tears while she added. "My parents made sure to that."

"You're parents suck," Maria could hear the bitterness in Hope's voice as she genuinely seemed angry.

"They really do," Maria sighed with an emotionally awkward smirk. She'd never really disclosed that information about her past to anybody. The only other person who knew those details were Natasha, after she'd told her a few years into their friendship. Yet, in that moment, she felt perfectly safe in sharing them with Hope. "My mom actually told me to leave his funeral. She said he was no longer my brother due to the choices I'd made. And I had no right in being there. So I left." She sighed heavily, now feeling a little more in control of her emotions; no longer fighting back tears. "The thought of one day reconnecting with him was the only thing tethering me to the family, but with him gone; I had nothing left with those people."

"God, and here I was complaining about my mild --in comparison-- childhood experiences.'

"Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Compare damages." Maria then smirked, "At the end of the day, we're both traumatised, and that's the important thing."

Hope's face split into a smile, "How silly was I to lose sight of the goal."

"Yes," Maria chuckled, "putting money into the pockets of our therapists."

"We're doing our parts in helping the economy," Hope's eyes twinkled as she dropped her head to her shoulder; giving her the sweetest look. God, all Maria wanted to do was crawl under the table to her, and then cup her beautiful face into her hands and get lost in her captivating green eyes.

"Thank you, by the way," Hope smiled while holding her gaze.

"For what?"

"For --you know-- helping us disappear so we could find my mom."

"Oh," Maria shook her head modestly, "I wasn't fishing for a thank you."

"Yeah, I know," her smile grew bigger on her face, "but you're getting one anyway." Hope then looked over her shoulder to the corner of the room; where the other two Avengers were still sharing a meal together. "Was Natasha the trusted friend who helped you?" Hope turned back to her.

"Yeah."

"Figured. She keeps giving me these looks like she knows something about me that no one else does."

Maria chuckled, "Honestly, she does that to everyone in varying degrees. It can be annoying. You don't know if she's looking at you because she knows what you ate for breakfast that morning, or if it's because she's just discovered your life's deepest darkest secret."

"So, you two are close then?" She asked while dropping her attention back to her food; swirling her fork into her mashed potatoes.

Hope seemed nervous as she avoided eye contact while the agent answered simply, "Yes." Choosing not to elaborate. Initially Maria would have dropped a hint that they were sleeping together to try and make her jealous, but something was stopping her from doing it. Maybe it was due to her short time spent with Scott, and seeing him with Hope. What the two had looked so simple and real, unlike what Maria had with Natasha. Which was complicated and unknown. Bringing it up just seemed somehow silly and disingenuous.

Hope nodded slowly as she put a fork full of potatoes into her mouth. There was a silence that was growing in length which had encouraged Maria to change the subject. "Have you really not seen aStar Warsmovie?" Her thoughts falling back to their initial conversation topic.

Hope swollowed her food before she chuckled and looked up from her plate. "I really have not."

"So you don't watch movies. You had a pool table in your house yet never played it. I'm just curious as to what the hell you do to unwind --I mean-- besides going to the gym and training to become the world's next super soldier that is?"

Hope smirked at her before sighing, "I don't know. I've been so busy with Pym Tech and then the quantum bridge, I haven't had much time for anything else." She then shrugged, "But I guess on occasion I'll read, or like knit something."

"Knit?"

Hope eyed her like she were warning her to tread lightly on the subject, "Yes."

Maria held back a giggle, "I cannot picture you knitting? What do you knit? Hand wraps and boxing gloves?"

Hope broke out into laughter, "No, like hats, gloves, scarves --you know-- normal things."

"You live in California. What do you do with them after you've made them?"

"I don't know. Put them in a basket and never look at them again." Maria chuckled at her answer. "No but really, I've made sweaters before that I've worn, and sometimes I'll put on a scarf. It can get cold there at night, okay."

"God, you're such a Southerner."

"Yeah, so maybe I am. I'd take it that you're originally from somewhere up north then."

"Chicago."

Hope then started with the most insincere tone, "I guess that explains things."

"What things?"

She leaned forward, resting her elbow on top of the table as her chin fell into her hand. "Why you're such a cold bitch," her eyes twinkled deviously.

Maria couldn't believe her cheekiness as she gasped which resulted in Hope giggling at her reaction. "Well then, if I'm a cold bitch, than that would make you a salty bitch."

"Ah yes," Hope closed her eyes and took a long peaceful breath as she tilted her head in her hand, "the salty ocean air has settled into my bones. It's now a part of my bitch personality forever," a satisfied smile rested on her face.

Hope was so psychically close to Maria as she was resting the weight of her upper body on top of the table that was separating them. All the agent wanted to do was lean in too, and then capture her lips with her own and shut her audacious yet perfect mouth up. Everything about Hope in that moment was intoxicating, her words, her smile, her scent, just her overall presence which had a way of making Maria feel safe and at home.

When Hope fluttered her eyes open to look at her, it was too much for Maria to handle. The agent had to quickly look back to her work in front of her; busying her hands in her files. "Ah," Maria started to pile up her papers, "I just realised that I should probably get back to the control room and start testing some of this stuff here," Maria lifted her tablet while keeping her eyes down, "make sure that if I need to call Tony, I'll get him before you guys start up again for your afternoon training."

"Oh, okay. Yeah, you better get to it then," Hope's voice sounded a little confused, or possibly even hurt. Maria couldn't quite tell. "I should get down to the boys and their cars anyway," she added.

The agent picked up her files and tablet in one hand while grabbing her tray in the other as she stood up and stepped over the bench. "Okay --ah-- see you then," Maria looked at her for only the briefest of moments before flickering her eyes away; scared that Hope would see her insecurities.

"See you," Hope repeated back in a similar flat tone that had matched Maria's, while the agent turned away and hurried for the lift; calling the elevator before dumping her tray so that she wouldn't have to stand awkwardly waiting for it.

As soon as it arrived and opened its doors, Maria abandoned her plate, that she'd only partially scraped her food off of, and beelined it into the elevator; punching the button for the control room floor. As soon as the doors had closed and the lift started to move, she walked to the back wall and clanked her head against it. With her forehead now pressed up against the cold surface; she felt her eyes welling up, with a single tear escaping; dripping down her cheek.

Hope was even more perfect than she'd ever imagined. In all her years, Maria had never felt such an intensity of emotions towards another person, and the fact that she had to watch her with someone else was completely tearing her apart and she didn't know what to do about it. Maria felt utterly powerless.


	10. Tenth

Maria yawned while she stretched her long slender body in bed. Her heavy, sleepy eyes opened to find Natasha propped up on her elbow next to her, her bare chest out with the blankets at her belly button, as she stared at her.

"Why are you watching me sleep?" Maria muttered.

"I'm not watching you sleep, I'm watching you wake up."

"It's too early for semantics," she groaned while she rubbed at her eyes. "speaking of early, what time is it?"

"Time to get up. Hence why we're awake."

"Are you purposely being annoying right now, or are you always like this and it's just taken me to this very moment to realise it?"

Natasha chuckled while Maria pushed herself upright; pulling the blankets over her cold nude upper body. She then reached over to check her phone; noting the time, realising that Natasha wasn't wrong, it really was time to get up. She then placed her mobile back while she focused her attention to her friend once again, who still had her gaze fixed on her. "Okay seriously, what gives?"

"I've just been thinking."

"Yeah?"

Natasha too sat up, pulling her side of the blankets to her shoulders. She then cocked her head as she began pushing brown hair behind Maria's ears. "Some people can become the closest of friends, some might be physically attracted to each other, and some will fall in love." She then pulled her hand away from Maria; placing it in her own lap. "But what we're all truly searching for is to find all three of those aspects in one person."

Maria shook her head as she pulled her knees to her chest; trying to protect herself from the conversation that she was suspecting was about to unfold. A conversation that Natasha had so clearly already rehearsed in her head. "Why are you saying this?"

"You know why," Natasha spoke softly, "You've known for a long time now. We both have."

She was right, they did both know, but she was still afraid to admit it. "You're my best friend." She felt the need to say.

"And you're mine," She said with a heartwarming smile, "I'd walk through fire for you, and l'm pretty sure you'd do the same for me, but that still doesn't change the fact that you're not in love with me."

Totally petrified by her emotions; Maria muttered so quietly that her own ears didn't quite register that it was her voice speaking, "I could be. Who's to say?"

Natasha reached over and placed a gentle hand on Maria's knee. "For awhile there, in the beginning, I thought maybe one day our time would come for that," She then squeeze her leg, "but now I know that we're just not meant to fall in love."

"How do you know?" She asked softly; deep down already knowing the answer.

"The way you look at Hope." Maria's breath hitched in hearing her friend's words. "I saw you two yesterday and, Maria, you've never looked at me like that."

"So what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that maybe we should stop with these sexy little recreational times of ours. You're using them as a distraction, and as your friend who cares for you deeply, I need to quit enabling you."

Maria nodded her head slowly, understanding that she was right. She then sighed, wanting to be an equally supportive friend too, "I guess I should quit enabling you too."

"Me?" Natasha asked in utter confusion.

"Yeah, I keep letting you use our bed to hide your feeling for Clint in."

"Clint?" She scoffed, "You're really reaching with that one."

Maria smirked, rolling her eyes, "Uh huh, sure I am," not buying her words of denial for a moment.

"What if I told you that he has a secret family already?"

"Oh yeah" She eyed her playfully, "Out somewhere in the midwest hiding on a farm."

Natasha grinned, "A wife and a kid, with another one on the way."

"Don't forget about the dog, the wood pile, and the American flag in the front yard."

Natasha chuckled, "Could you imagine?"

"No," Maria laughed before she eyed her suspiciously, "And by the way, nice avoidance technique."

"We were talking about you, not me," she shot back.

Maria sighed, "Sometimes it hits me just how hardwired your training is, and it makes me wonder if you're even capable of revealing sensitive information about yourself."

"Yeah," Natasha's mood fell a little more serious, "sometimes I wonder that same thing too."

"Don't let this opportunity you have now slip away." Maria said with the utmost sincerity, "He might not wait around forever for you. Trust me, you don't want to end up in a situation like mine."

Natasha smirked at her playfully, "I don't know, we could pine together. Start a group, make bracelets, have a secret handshake."

Maria huffed, "I'm not pining."

"You are. But it's a good thing."

"How in the world is it a good thing?"

"Because," Natasha rubbed her thumb over Maria's leg, where her hand was still resting, "You need to hold on for a bit longer. You always try to push your emotions down and pretend that things don't affect you, but they do. Especially now more than ever. Don't give up on her, not yet."

"What, are you telling me to fight for her? because I won't meddle between her and Scott."

"No, I know you won't. You value her happiness above all else, even if that means she's with someone else."

"Then what?" She asked in exasperation, "I'm just supposed to be miserable as I watch from the sidelines. Hoping that one day she comes to the conclusion that I'm actually the one for her?"

Natasha shrugged her shoulders and scrunched her face, "Pretty much, yeah."

Maria sighed, "Well this sucks."

"Like a bullet wound to the stomach, I'd imagine," she sympathetically nodded.

"You've had one of those." Maria thought back to the last time her friend was shot.

"Yeah, and it sucked," Natasha gave her a lopsided smile before kissing her on the cheek. "Now come on, we have to get up, it's getting late," she drummed at Maria's leg before crawling out of bed to go into the bathroom.

Maria sighed before she too got out of bed where she then retrieved her clothes from off the floor. As she heard the shower turn on, she got dressed, only to leave quietly to go back to her own room, so that she could properly get ready for the day herself.

* * *

Hope had been completely out of it that morning. They were taking turns at Clint's latest range course, but Hope didn't feel in the mood to give it a go. She merely stood in the back and let the others try it out.

Ever since her lunch with Maria the day before, she wasn't able to get the other woman off of her mind. In her head she would replay every word that she could recall that had fallen out of Maria's beautiful mouth; fixating on her breathtaking smile and her intoxicating laugh. Then when she had thought on all the things Maria had said about her family; and the way that she'd opened up to her, Hope had wanted to cry. It had killed her to hear about the commander's past. She wished that she could have held Maria in her arms and kissed her forehead when she was telling her story. She had never known the agony of not being able to show someone that she had cared for, that they were loved in a time that they had displayed such pain and vulnerability.

Hope sighed, eyes fixated on the clouds through the window that lay off to the side of the course. Not once in her life had she been so enthralled by another person. It was like every time they'd interacted, Hope would sink deeper into this longing for her.

"Earth to Hope," Scott waved his hand in front of her face. She blinked and focused on him. "Water break," he pointed at the gang, wandering off to take a short breather.

"Oh, right," She nodded, turning to go to her water bottle at the side of the room, where she sat down with it on a nearby bench.

"So did you end up calling Li mei?" Hope heard Natasha asking Steve as they all gathered at the side of the room.

"No."

"Did you chicken out?"

"Who's Li mei?" Sam asked.

"Girl from financing. Super cute. Perfect for Steve."

"Wait, what?" Scott jumped in. " You're single?" He asked while turning to the captain. "Why did I think you were dating Maria?"

The entire room laughed, including Steve as he responded, "Well that would be extremely awkward if I were."

Scott looked around to everyone as he said, "Yeah, I feel like I'm missing something here."

"Yeah," Sam clapped Scott on the back, "Maria's gay."

"Oh," Scott allowed the information to sink in. "Yeah, that would be awkward then," he nodded his head.

Hope shifted in her seat, paranoid that Scott was somehow going to connect the dots between her and Maria, now that he was presented with this new information.

"So, Li mei?" Natasha asked Steve again.

"What is it with you and your mission to find me a date?"

"Maybe I don't want to be the last person you've kissed anymore."

"You kissed Nat?" Clint asked, in a not so pleased tone.

"It's not what you think. We were trying to hide in plain sight. Natasha, tell them that thing about people not liking public displays of affection."

She shrugged, "I don't know what he's talking about. He's clearly trying to make up excuses to hide the fact that he wants me."

Steve laughed while shaking his head, "Oh, you are really something, Romanoff."

Suddenly the lights went off while loud sliding and clanking noise came from all around the room, shutting out the sunlight, which made Hope jump to her feet. When the red emergency lights came on, it was revealed that metal shielding had dropped to seal the windows, doors, and elevator.

"Tony, what did you do now?" Steve sighed in annoyance.

"This wasn't me I swear," he replied, yet it wasn't in his normal unbothered tone that Hope was accustomed to hearing, he sounded concerned. "Jarvis, control room."

The male voice with a British accent spoke up from his Iron Man suit, where they could all easily hear him too, "I am unable to reach communications. Sir, I seem to be completely disconnected from the tower in all capacities."

"Is this because of your security upgrade?" Natasha asked him.

"No, it hasn't been implemented yet."

Clint then crossed the room, to where they geared up for training. There he had opened a locker and pulled out a two way radio; instantly tuning the dial; clearly having a channel in mind.

"Barton to Hill, do you read me?" He spoke into the receiver.

They all stood in anticipation while they were only met with static. Then, before Clint spoke into it again, they heard blades from a helicopter outside.

Natasha simply announced, "chopper!"

"Are they landing?" Sam tracked the sound, as he was now looking up to the ceiling.

"Tony, is there a way out of here?" Steve addressed him.

"I enforced the lock down on this floor to stop anything shy of the Hulk. The reason this place became the training room was because of this very feature."

"Are there any backdoors?" Natasha asked.

"I mean, maybe I can do something," he went over to the panel that he'd been in the other day. He stepped out of his suit where he then started to tinker around, but after a minute he'd pulled his head out and sighed, "well kids, I do believe we're stuck. There's no power running through this system right now to do anything."

Steve huffed, "great."

The radio then cracked, "Hill here, does anybody read?"

Clint eagerly answered, "It's Barton. We're trapped in the Ready Room. What's going on out there?"

"Somebody got into our system. I'm locked out. Hostiles are breaching the building." Her words ended with the sound of gunshot fire followed by radio silence.

"Hill?" Clint spoke into the radio but no response came.

Natasha then grabbed the receiver out of Clint's hand as she tried, "Maria?"

After a few moments the radio crackled again, "yeah, I'm here," came her voice.

Natasha breathed a sigh of relief. "Status?"

"I'm in controles, hostiles are incapacitated."

"And you?"

"Gunshot wound to the shoulder. I'll live." Hope felt her stomach knot in hearing that she was injured. "Shit," Maria cursed, "I've got eyes on more unfriendlies approaching from the street. I count at least twenty men."

"I thought she was locked out," Tony said while reaching for the radio, where Natasha handed it to him. He then repeated his question into the radio, "I thought you were locked out. How do you see them?"

"Window and binoculars, Tony." Hope could almost hear the eye roll through her tone. "Okay, tell me how I get back into the system."

"Do you have the upgrade program on you?"

"Yes."

"Okay, plug in the drive. Theoretically, it should crash the already existing system before downloading the new one."

Hope stood on alert, ready for Maria to gain control back and let them out to deal with the intruders.

"Alright," came Maria again, "it's downloading, but it's estimating twenty minutes until completion."

Tony then informed her, "Some systems may come active before then."

A moment later Maria's voice was heard, not through the radio, but through Tony's suit. "Like communications."

Tony smirked, "Hopefully lockdown controls will be next."

"Problem!" The commander exclaimed, "The defensive system is activated."

"That's a good thing."

"No, as in self destruct, self defense."

"Oh my God," Tony muttered to himself in horror. "The upgrade must have triggered it."

"It says we have under three minutes until impact, and I can't stop it from my end."

"Tony, what is going on?" Steve demanded.

"Ah," he sounded both scared and guilty, "the tower has an emergency self destruct," He stuttered out an explanation, "a missile launch from satellite, to be exact. And well, it's been deployed and is now on its way."

"To the building?" Scott gasped.

"Yeah."

"So, what now?" Scott threw his hands up, "we're just supposed to wait for the doors tohopefullyopen for us before then?"

Maria then came through communications, interrupting Scott, as she was talking loudly over what sounded like a strong wind, "I think these guys are A.I.M. so when you get out, make sure to tell Fury that."

The room fell silent, apparently everyone had picked up on her implication that they'd be around later where she wouldn't be. Natasha then lifted her arm to talk through her communicator on her wrist. "What the hell are you planning?"

"They left a chopper right on my doorstep." Hope could only assume that the helipad was right outside of the control room.

Natasha dropped her arm as her face went white, "Oh god, she's going to intercept the missile."

"Like fly into it?" Scott asked where she then slowly nodded. "She's going to parachute out of it before it hits, right?"

Sam then responded with an empty voice, "Helicopters aren't equipped with parachutes."

Hope had to do something. There was no way she'd just stand around and let Maria sacrifice herself for them. "You said the air vents have pulsating electrical fields," she said more to herself than to Tony.

"Don't." Tony looked to her, following her train of thought. "If the force field activates while you're only partially through, you will absolutely go into cardiac arrest, and it will most likely kill you in your miniaturised state." He shook his head, "it's just too much power."

There wasn't a single word spoken that had scared her in that moment, all she could think of was Maria flying to her doom. Hope then turned to Natasha and said, "Tell her to jump."

Before anyone could respond, she activated her helmet and shrunk down. She thought she'd heard Scott yell her name, but she was so tunnel visioned that she wasn't sure. She flew up to the ceiling where the air vent lay at the top of a wall. She hovered for a mere moment, watching the sheen of the field flickering, then, like a bullet, she took off, full speed to the opening. Just as she were about to breach the duct, she eased off ever so slightly on her speed; seeing the field activate just before she reached the threshold. She was sure that she was about to crash into it, but she'd ended up slowing down just at the right time, by the right amount, that she flew successfully through, at the very moment the field pulsed off.

The feeling of satisfaction didn't even enter her psyche, as she was far too focused on weaving through the ducts to find a way out of the building. Luckily, it didn't take her long to reach an exit as she popped out at a roof access. She then quickly scanned her surroundings, finding the helicopter already flying away from the tower. Without hesitation, Hope beelined towards it as swiftly as she possibly could, flying faster than she'd ever had, trying to catch up with it.

The chopper was climbing in height, but Hope was not concerned with matching its altitude, she needed to be lower anyway. Then she saw it, she was about a hundred metres away from the helicopter's airspace, when the missile came hurtling towards the aircraft. "Jump," Hope muttered to herself as she was looking upwards, her eyes glued to the pilot's door.

To her relief, the door had opened and Maria had managed to get a single foot out before the missile hit. The explosion aggressively tossed her out of the chopper, where Hope was certain that she'd been knocked unconscious by the shockwave.

Hope took a brief note of the landscape below, seeing the harbour not too far away as she flew full speed ahead to Maria. Hope came from underneath, angling up to reach her. Her intentions were to slow her decent by cutting down the distance of the fall, while aiming them up and towards the water. She'd wished more than ever that she'd gotten her blaster to work successfully on organic structures, then she'd only need to shrink Maria and catch her and then fly her down to safety, but, alas, she could not do that. So just as Maria was above her head, Hope grew to size; catching her in her arms.

Hope held on to her securely as their path arched in the air. Then as they began their decent they started rolling in the upwards draft where Hope somehow managed to control them when she wrapped her legs around Maria's unresponsive body. She then made sure to flip them and hold the other woman so that she was on top of her, not allowing for the outcome of her hitting ground first. Hope, in her lightly armoured suit, was going to take the brunt of the impact.

She looked to the ground, not sure if they were going to make it to the water or not. Realisation hitting her, that this could very well be the end. She knew that she had an out, that she could save herself. All she had to do was shrink down and fly away unharmed, but there was no possible way in which she was going to do that. She would never leave this woman wrapped in her arms to fall through the sky alone. She was prepared to die if it had given Maria a chance to live. So she held Maria tightly as their bodys crashed down into the shallows of the harbour. Her body feeling a surge of unimaginable force and then absolutely nothing.


	11. Eleventh

Maria struggled to pry her heavy eyelids open; the bright halo of lights were assaulting her vision once she got them halfway parted. She groaned, lifting her sore arm so that she could attack the harsh glow; rubbing at her eyes with the palm of her hand; trying to make it stop. It took her a moment to associate her mind with her physical self, as she drew stock of her own body and the aching that pulsated through most of it. In an incoherent panic; not comprehending what was happened to her, she pushed her elbows beside her and tried to force herself up into a sitting position; wincing out in pain from her throbbing shoulder, and the tenderness of her forearms.

"Hey, hey, easy," Natasha's voice came as her friend took a hold of her upper arms, helping her to sit up, where Maria hung her legs over the surface that she'd just been laying on.

"Wha--?" Maria blinked, trying to focus on her surroundings. She looked past the agent and instantly recognised one of the smaller rooms inside of the infirmary, that was on the second floor of the Avenger's Tower. Natasha was the only one in there with her; making her wonder if the medical staff were in another section of the floor. She then looked down to her body to see that she was in a hospital gown. She noted the scrapes that ran all the way up her arms, with a bandage at her shoulder, which triggered a memory of a nurses digging at her wound to remove a bullet. "What happened?" she croaked out with a vague recollection of being brought in by Tony in his Iron Man suit. She then gazing back at her friend who was still stabilising her in her grasp.

"The tower was breached, you over-road their controls which led to the termination of the shutdown in the Ready Room. We all got out, kicked some ass, but not before you jumped out of an exploding helicopter and landed in the drink," She explained to her; slowly removing her hands away from her. "You've been in and out of it for about an hour."

Maria shook her head as she tried to recall back to when she was piloting the aircraft; confused as to how she survived the fall. She knew from her military jump training that a straight drop into water from anything higher than 250 feet was fatal, and she was sure that her altitude was greater than that. "You told me to jump," Maria muttered as a memory came back. "You told me to jump... and then I survived an impossible fall?"

Natasha sighed heavily, closing her eyes as she spoke, "Hope used the air vents and got out of the Ready Room before the rest of us could," the woman then opened her eyes and fixed her gaze onto Maria's.

The dreadful look on Natasha's face brought back a chilling memory of Maria waking up in the water where she had dragged Hope's body out to the shoreline. "Where is she?" Maria hopped off of her bed, only to stumble into Natasha's arms.

"Maria, careful!" Natasha pushed her back to leane against the frame. "She's in the O.R."

She cried out in panicked confusion, "What?"

Natasha explained, "So, we're pretty sure she slowed your descent and then broke your fall." Maria had no words, she just shook her head in disbelief as Natasha continued. "She hit her head pretty hard. Jane's performing a decompressive craniectomy on her now." She referenced Jane Foster, the tower's on call doctor.

"Speak English!" Maria spat in angered frustration, not understanding her medical jargon.

"Her brain is swelling, so she's removing a piece of her skull to elevate the pressure."

Maria's head started racing; not fully understanding the fatality of the situation. "Well, is that going to fix her? Will she be okay?"

"Jane doesn't know. All she said was she wouldn't make it if she didn't get the procedure." Maria swallowed hard. "But that's not everything," Natasha bit at her lip while having that same grave expression as before.

"What do you mean?"

"Her spine. It's ah--" Natasha cocked her head to the side, like she didn't want to finish the sentence. "It's been completely severed."

"No," Maria shook her head, her eyes instantly welling up. It was too much, it was all too much. She pushed herself off of the bed frame, past Natasha, as she started clumsily pacing the floor, trying not to topple over due to her sudden feeling of vertigo. "No, no, no, we can fix this. Wakandan medicine. They fixed that C.I.A. Agent's spine. What's his name."

"Agent Ross."

"Yeah! So they can fix her's too."

"Princess Shuri is already on her way, but she did caution us that she's only ever fixed incomplete spinal injuries." Maria stopped pacing as she looked to her friend, a tear escaping down her face. She had never felt so scared in her life. Natasha crossed the floor to her and wrapped her into a hug. "Hey, just breathe." She stroked her head. "Shuri sounded determined. And that kid's literally the smartest person in the world, and she's going to be here and completely devoted to her injury, okay?"

"It won't do any good if the swelling doesn't go down."

"It will go down." Natasha pulled Maria away from her so that she could see her eye-to-eye. "Look, I've only met Hope this past week, but, just by that, I can tell you, with absolute certainty, that she's strong and a fighter." The woman smirked encouragingly, "she took down Cap in less than five seconds, she can beat this too."

Maria sniffled, as she started to pull herself together; allowing Natasha's words to sink in. "Yeah," she nodded while wiping her teary eyes dry, yet in no ways was she remotely okay. She took a deep breath, reminding herself that she was in command and had to start acting as such. She stepped away from her friend before asking, in a professional tone, "The intruders," she changed the subject. "Was it A.I.M.? Did they access any information? Any casualties?"

Natasha must have noticed her shift in demeanor, as she indulged her need to move on; answering accordingly, "Yes, we suspect A.I.M. Fury's got Coulson and May on the investigation. No casualties. We're still not sure if they got into our information or not. Tony thinks they only breached into the building's security and were hoping to access our servers directly after they'd taken the place." Maria nodded, glad that the building breach may not end up being a full systems breach.

She started to wonder though, on how this all could have come about in the first place. "They got in because of that hiccup in the power grid the other day, didn't they?" She concluded.

"Possibly."

"This is my fault."

"Yours? Tony was the one who was tampering, not you."

"Yeah, but I should've been more thorough in checking the system afterwards. I'm in command, everything falls on me in the end." She looked in the direction of the operating room that lay on the other side of the wall, guilt ridden by the fact that Hope was in there because of her failures as a leader.

Natasha didn't bother responding to her comment, where Maria had only assumed that she probably recognising that she wasn't wrong.

Maria then looked around in search of something to wear. She noticed a fresh pile of her own clothes with a pair of boots on the tray next to the bed, which was obviously brought to her by Natasha who would've been the only one who would have gone into her room for them. She instantly grabbed her stuff and began getting dressed, where Natasha had wordlessly stepped in to help her with both her bra and t-shirt, as she was having trouble with them due to the sore bullet wound at her shoulder.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Natasha finally asked her as she began putting on her boots.

Every muscle in Maria's body felt tight, the skin on her arms burned from all the cuts on them, courtesy of the rocky shore, and her head was pounding, but she didn't care to acknowledge them. They were nothing in comparison to what Hope was dealing with, and deep down she'd believed that she deserved her pain. "I'm fine," she huffed as she finished tying her shoelaces. "Just need to get up to Controls and see if we're screwed or not."

Maria then got up and headed for the room's exit, which led into the hallway that held the elevator, with Natasha on her heels. When they opened the door they were met with a frail looking Scott, sitting on a chair just outside of the operating room.

"You're awake," he said like he were overtaxed with anxiety while he stood in response to them.

Maria froze, not knowing what to say. He looked so worried and haggard. His hair was askew, like he'd been nervously running his hands through it. "I…" Maria trailed off as she turned her head, looking to the side and through the surgery room's window. It appeared like they had finished the procedure as they were gently flipping Hope over onto her back, while guiding her head onto a ring shaped pillow, which kept her from laying on the suture at the back of her head. One of the nurses then gently lifted Hope's head while Jane removed the surgery cap from the unconscious woman, which revealed her hair that was half up in a bun, and with the lower section in a small ponytail at the base of her neck, that had been tucked into her gown. Between her parted hair there was a section that had been shaven for the incision. Jane then placed a thick piece of gauze on the wound, where she proceeded to wrap a bandage around her head, not unlike a headband, to keep the dressing secure, before her head was softly placed back down.

Maria was shaking as she watched them. Then suddenly she was surprised by the gross sensation of vomit coming up past her throat, where she had to quickly swallow it down. "I have to go," she muttered through her hand over her mouth, heading straight for the stairwell; not capable of calling the elevator and having to wait for it. She had to get out of there, and right then.

She had climbed only two storeys before her sore body had had enough. She then called the elevator from the cafeteria floor to take her the rest of the way up. Forcing the image of Hope out of her mind.

Once she reached Controls, she saw a man from their cleanup crew, wheeling a mop and bucket full of bloodied red water, casually make his way past her to take her ride to another floor. She was left to the room, along with Clint, and Tony. Both men were hunched over various computer screens at the time. "Update," she ordered, falling back into her soldier mode, which was the only thing keeping her together in that moment.

They both looked up to her where Clint was the one to smile, "Hey, glad to have you back."

She bowed her head in awkward acknowledgment, still too guilt ridden and shaken to take his words to heart. "The security breach?" she pressed on.

"Right," he rubbed at his neck, "Tony's stripping down logs looking for anomalies access of secure data."

Tony already had his head back into the computer as he spoke up. "You're going to have to be the one to check these. You know better than any of us of who is accessing what and at which times. I don't even know what most of these encrypted files are." he abruptly cleared his throat, as he refused to look her in the eye. "So yeah, if something looks suspicious, let me know." He had guilt written all over his face, like he too were internalising the responsibility for what had happened. He then stepped away from the computer that he was at; gesturing for her to sit down and do her thing.

She walked over and took a seat as he fumbled out a quick explanation of exactly what she had to do before muttering something about checking the servers, where he then left.

Clint then walked up to her as he placed a tablet next to her, "The Royal Talon's flight plan. It should be here in about nine hours." A map with an indicator marker over central Africa was presented to her.

"Okay," Maria said dryly, wishing that the Wakandans could somehow get there even quicker. She wasn't familiar with spinal injuries, but she'd assumed that the sooner the princess could get to it, the better.

"Hell of a speed that ship can go," he said as if he were attempting to get a little more out of her.

"Yeah," she responded with the same hollow tone as she started navigating the computer logs.

"Maria," he addressed her softly.

She sighed in annoyance, "Yes, Barton?"

"Thank you. We'd all be a pile of ash right now if it wasn't for you."

She had no words of reply, so she decided to act like he hadn't just said what he had. "I'm assuming our situation made the news"

"Yes."

"Are you dealing with it?"

"I will now," he'd picked up on her subtle order. "Tell the truth, keep it vague?"

"Extremely vague. We were attacked. We dealt with it. That's it."

"Understood." He then walked out of Controls to do as he was instructed.

Once Maria had the room she sighed, taking a moment before she delved into her assignment, almost happy when she realised what exactly she was in for. She had easily a full day's work ahead of her looking through old logs, while still needing to monitor current ongoing activity, which she hoped would keep her mind busy and off of their fallen Avenger.

About an hour into her work, with nothing suspicious yet found, she heard the elevator ping. She turned to see Dr. Foster walking onto the floor.

"You thought you could escape my infirmary without me hunting you down?" she smirked while approaching Maria with her medical bag in hand. "Here, catch," Jane threw a roll of surgical tape at her where Maria was quick to snatch it out of the air. "Good, your reflexes seem fine. Usually a decent indicator that you're head's doing alright." She reached the desk that the agent was at and leaned up against it with her hip; putting her bag down on the table.

Maria managed a genuine smile towards the woman as she handed the tape back to her, "Hey, Jane." She found it comforting in seeing a friendly face of somebody in whom she wasn't in direct command over. She didn't feel that same urgency to keep up her tough act as much in front of the doctor.

The woman smiled back at her as she turned to her bag and opened it, placing her tape inside of it while grabbing her pen light out. Soon she was flashing it into Maria's eyes, checking her pupil dilation. She then flicked off her tool and held it upright. "Follow it with your eyes," the doctor moved the pen side to side while Maria tracked it. "Good," she then put the mini torch into her lab coat pocket and asked, "How's your head?"

"Painful."

"And your shoulder?"

"Also painful."

She smirked, "Anything else?"

"Yes everything else is painful."

"As long as nothing's excruciating, like broken bones, pain is a good thing. It usually means things are working correctly." She pulled a bubble pack of pills out of her bag, "I'd be concerned if you weren't feeling pain after falling out of a helicopter." She handed the medication to her, "Take one of these every four to six hours. Do not double up on them."

Maria took them slowly out of her hand as her thoughts fell back to Hope. "How's your other patient doing?" She asked in hesitation; scared of the answer.

"Hard to say," she sighed. "The surgery definitely helped with the pressure, but her swelling seems to be unchanging." Jane shook her head, "She's not out of the woods yet." Maria nodded her head heavily. "But I'm doing my damnedest to make sure you don't lose your newest recruit. She seems like a keeper." She then smirked at her, "She's like the rest of you dumbasses who are always ready to sacrifice yourselves for others." Her face then turned a little more sincere, yet she still bore a smile, "Like a true hero."

"She is a hero."

"Yeah, and so are you." Jane locked eyes with her before she turned to her bag and grabbed out a few small satchels. "Now, I'm assuming you have yet to shower after your swim in the harbour."

"Is this you telling me that I smell like fish?"

"No, this is me telling you to take a break from whatever important thing you're doing here, and wash our garbage New York City waters off of you, so you don't get some weird parasite." She lifted up the packets, "These bandages are waterproof, so take off the one that's on your shoulder and replace it with one of these before you shower," she put the items down next to her, "then afterwards," she fumbled in her satchel again, pulling out similar looking packets, but of a different colour, "put one of these on. These ones breathe," she shook the packets in hand, "the others don't."

"Okay"

"Okay," Jane repeated her, putting the bandages next to the others. "I'm going back down to the infirmary." She started off towards the exit. "Make sure to take care of yourself," she warned her.

"I will," Maria responded half-heartedly.

Jane caught her tone, "I don't believe that for a second," she called over her shoulder while pressing the button for the elevator, where it opened almost instantly for her. She then piled in as she turned to joke, "You don't want me tranqing you so I can give you a sponge bath, do you?" she smiled as the doors shut, leaving Maria alone and to herself.

The commander didn't hurry for that break. Instead she poured over the logs for hours, only stopping when she had to direct one of her personnel, or when Agent Melinda May had called to update her on their progress.

Finally, by the evening, she had minimised her windows on the computer and left Controls; intending to make her way down to her room to take a quick shower, needing some time to rest her brain.

When she got into the elevator, she pressed the button for the apartment level. However, when the doors had opened for her to get out, she froze; gazing down the hallway. After a moment the doors shut before her blank, disassociated stare. She sighed while closing her eyes, giving up while pressing the button for the infirmary.

When she arrived on the floor, she cautiously walked out into the hall; scouting to see who was around. There was no one in sight as she started meandering through the passageway. She then looked through the narrow window on the door of the larger patient room, that she'd suspected Hope would be in.

She was right, she could see her, with Jane checking her vitals, and Scott asleep at the end of her bed, in a chair by her feet. Jane looked up; noticing her when she finished writing something in her chart; putting it down before she slipped out of the room to her.

"Hey," the doctor greeted her.

"Hey," she responded; looking back through the window. "Any changes," she gesture with her head to Hope.

Jane turned around to face the window too. "Not really." Maria sighed. "You can go in to see her if you'd like."

Maria shook her head, "No, it's okay." She scrambled for an excuse, "I don't want to disturb Scott."

"Well, I wouldn't worry too much about that. Poor guy was so stressed, I offered him a lorazepam and it kinda just knocked him out." She then shrugged, "Which probably isn't a bad thing. Now he'll get a little rest before Hope's parents get here." The doctor then focused on Maria, "In all my years of working in a hospital, I've noticed that parents always seem to be the most stressful element, especially on the patients' partners." Maria started biting at the inside of her lip in agitation. The fact that Hope's condition was so grave that her parents had been called, hit her like a ton of bricks. "Anyway, I should get back to prepping the lab. I've gotten some requests from Princess Shuri already for what she'll be needing when she gets here." Jane lightly patted Maria's back as she walked away down the hall to the door at the end; disappearing inside.

After a moment of hesitation, Maria took a deep breath, deciding to go in. She turned the knob and quietly entered the room where she ever so slowly made her way towards the unconscious woman. Hope still had a bandage wrapped around her head, but this time her hair was down, nicely sprawled out on the bed like a halo you'd see in a renaissance painting. She also had a nasal cannula, for oxygen, at her nose, and an intravenous in her arm. Though, while Hope's beauty remained unmatched, even in her current state, the tragedy lay in the sight of her pale, colourless face. Without her blushing cheeks and her naturally pink lips, she had looked lifeless, which brought an unimaginable pain to Maria's heart.

Maria stilled her body at the side of her bed. Her instincts were to reach out and touch her, but she was too scared to. She feared that she didn't have Hope's permission to take her hand or kiss her cheek, both things that she longed to do. Instead she rested her hands on the mattress beside her as her gaze remained fixed on Hope's face. "You stupid, salty bitch," Maria muttered under her breath, "why did you do this?" She closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath, trying to keep herself together. She then opened them, looking back to her in anger, an anger that Hope was laying there instead of her, "I swear if you don't wake up, I'll roll your ass all the way back to San Francisco and into your lab, and then I'll blow it up for real this time," her words trailed off as she sniffled and rubbed at her eyes that were trying to shed a tear. She then reached out towards her face, only to pull away as she were about to brush against her skin, again, not wanting to cross a boundary. It was pure agony that she couldn't run her thumb across her cheek, or comb her fingers through her hair. She so wished to just touch her skin. Instead she clasped her hands together, where she then brought them to her mouth. She pushed the knuckle of her thumb into her pursed lips as she imagined kissing Hope's cheek. Then, she slowly started to back away from her; finally taking one last look before she turned and left.

She went straight up to her room where she wasted no time in stripping off her clothes in her bathroom; finally seeing a full view of her injured body. She had a gash across her forehead by her temple, her arms were now black and purple with her scrapes starting to scab over. Then from her mid thighs to her knees she was also covered with bruises. She imagined that they were from Hope's suit when they'd crashed into the water.

She changed her bandage before she slowly stepped into her upright shower; turning on the hot water as it trickled down her sore body; wishing that it could just wash the entire day away. She hadn't lasted long in the steaming water before she finally broke; sliding down the cool glass pane, she landed on the tile floor, tears running down her face as she weaped into her hands; the water pounding at the back of her head. The image of Hope on that hospital bed was etched into her brain. She'd witnessed both friends and colleagues fall in combat before, it had always been painful, but this was a new level of agony that she'd never known. She would've sold her soul to the devil himself if it meant that Hope would be alright. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option, so she simply remain crying on the shower floor for a little bit longer.


	12. Twelfth

It had been coming up on two days since their breach, where Maria had spent nearly all of her time in Controls; hunched over her computer. She'd barely eaten anything and had yet to go to bed, worried that something terrible would happen if she'd taken a break. Irrationally thinking that her personal diligence would somehow yield a positive outcome for all the things that she had absolutely no power over.

The last update she'd received from medical was ten hours ago, where Jane had told her that Hope's swelling had only ever so slightly begun to go down, and she had still yet to wake up.

"Maria," Natasha's voice came through the Bluetooth in her ear, at some time during the middle of the night. "Thought you might want to know that Princess Shuri is planning to stop by the cafeteria for a late night snack before heading off to bed."

Maria understood what her friend was communicating. The commander had not made it to the infirmary since her one and only visit the day before. Honestly, she was now not only avoiding Scott, but she was also avoiding Hope's parents too. She was so scared that the trio would blame her for Hope's condition. However, with Shuri in the cafeteria, Maria could casually ask her for a more indepth update, especially in regards to her spinal injury, without going to the medical floor, or bugging Jane again with another phone call.

"Kay. Thanks," Maria responded to Natasha. Where she was quick to get up and head over to the cafeteria.

The commander was too fast though; she'd beaten Shuri to the mess hall, when she was surprised to find Steve there, chomping away at an apple at one of the tables. The captain had ended up assisting Agents Coulson and May, and was out of the tower for the past couple days, he'd only just arrived back that night.

"Hey," he stood up as she slowly approached him, "I thought you were going to bed?" He referenced their last communication where the man had basically attempted to order her to get some rest. "I would have come to see you if I'd known you were still up." He took a few steps towards her where they stopped in front of each other. Steve looked her over before he said sympathetically, "You look pretty rough." He smirked while moving to her; wrapping her gently into a side hug as he lead her to sit down next to him. "When's the last time you've eaten?" He removed his arm from around her back.

"I don't remember," Maria shook her head, her brain so exhausted that she didn't even know what day it was to use as a reference for an answer.

Steve handed her the orange that was in front of him. "How are you holding up?"

Maria focused on the orange, spinning it in her hands instead of actually peeling it. "This is all my fault. The breach, the aftermath, Hope. All of it."

"Don't you dare start with this."

"Start with what?"

"Blaming yourself. We had an incident as a team. You stepped up like a heroic leader, and then Hope stepped up like a heroic team member."

"That's just the thing though." She looked to her friend, "Iam the leader. It'smyjob to keep this place safe and secure for you guys. It's not your guys's job to savemyass." She then sighed, focusing back on the fruit in her hands, "I should have never jumped out of that chopper. Then Hope wouldn't be lying in the infirmary right now."

"No, stop," he shook his head. "You're just going through survivor's guilt right now."

"Hope's not dead!" She snapped.

"No, she's not, but she's hurt and unconscious and you feel guilty for waking up when she still has yet to. So now you're saying ridiculous things like you wish you'd died in a helicopter explosion."

Maria, in annoyance of hearing his words, dug her fingernails into the orange peel. "It's not ridiculous," she softly scoffed. "She shouldn't have done it. She had no right to do this to me," her words trailed off.

"Do this to you?" Steve sounded confused.

"Make me live through her suffering."

"Okay, you need to go to bed." He said with a kind, gentle tone, "I think you're so sleep deprived that you're saying these things." He then placed a hand on her upper back, gently rubbing at it. "This is not like you. I've seen you deal with fallen comrades before, and you've never shared these types of thoughts." He stilled his hand to squeeze her forearm, "Go get some rest, I promise you, you'll feel better when you wake up."

Maria pushed the orange into his hand, giving it back to him, "I'll feel better whenshewakes up."

"Yeah, so will I," the man took his hand away from her as he peeled the orange. "Then I can finally beat you two in our unfinished game of pool," he smirked at her, clearly trying to cheer her up.

"She could have severe brain damage," she snipped back, "She may not even be able to hold a cue stick let alone remember us playing the game in the first place."

He signed, clearly realising her impossible mood while he finished peeling the fruit. "Okay." He stood up, "I'm going to bed, and I really hope that you do too." He grabbed his apple core and orange peels in one hand, while taking a hold of his orange pieces in his other. "No matter what happens, we are going to come together as a team and deal with it. And as team leader, I'm going to need my commander to stop beating herself up so that she can do her part."

"What exactly are you saying?"

"I'm saying,Go. To. Bed." He then placed his orange pieces in front of her on the table, as he dipped down to kiss the top of her head. "And eat something while you're at it."

Maria sighed as she turned to watch him throw out his composting and leave. In a very small way, Steve actually did manage to make her feel a teeny bit better. He'd assured her that Hope was in every way still a part of the team, and would be treated as such no matter what, despite the fact that she'd only been with them for about a week.

Maria stood up, grabbing the orange as she started popping pieces into her mouth while wandering to the one open buffet table in the back, which always had food on it. She ended up grabbing a bag of almonds, just as she heard the elevator ping. Turning around she saw both Okoye, whom she'd met briefly once before with T'Challa, and with her was Princess Shuri, where the two stepped out onto the floor.

They both started towards her as Okoye smiled in greeting, "Commander, it is a pleasure to see you again." The Dora Milaje bowed as she stopped in front of her.

"Likewise, General." Mara bowed her head too as she smiled back. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to greet you when you two arrived here earlier." She looked to Shuri who was already grabbing snacks from the table, "we're so grateful you've come here to help us."

"Are you kidding me?" Shuri's face lit up, "I am so glad to not be working on some broken white boy again. Seriously, I was beginning to worry that you colonisers only had male warriors."

"Shuri, don't be disrespectful." Okoye eyed her, "We all know that in whatever nation we speak of, female warriors are more skillful, so they falter less often than their male counterparts. Meaning, there will always be fewer of them to fix up," The general smirked, while she winked at the young princess, making Shuri break out into laughter. Okoye then looked to Maria as she spoke. "Nakia sends her greetings to you, and thanks you again for your assistance in Korea."

"I don't know why she's thanking me, she helped me more than I helped her." Maria thought to her mission from a few years back, when they'd run into each other.

"When Wakanda was a hidden technological nation, the greatest assistance one could extend to us was in keeping our true identity a secret. You, Commander Hill, have shown this worthy quality to Wakanda, and because of it, Wakanda will always show its gratitude to you and consider you a close ally."

"I'm honoured." Maria smiled, having so much respect for both Okoye and Nakia.

"Commander," Shuri muttered through the pack of gummy bears that were between her teeth, "since we're all honoured allies and everything." Okoye sighed as she removed the sweets from the girl's mouth so that they could better understand her. Shuri then looked to Okoye, "Thank you," before she focused back on Maria, "Anyway, do you think that you could casually drop in the fact that Wakandans don't eat, the next time you see Peter Parker? Tell him that we just inject nutrients into our bloodstream once a month. I want to see how far I can get before he starts calling bullshit. I already have him believing that we do not have stairs and sidewalks. He thinks that we just use hover lifts and teleporters to get everywhere!" She giggled.

Maria smirked in amusement, "Nutrient injections?" She nodded in compliance, "I'm sure I can manage to work that in at some point."

Shuri laughed and clapped, "Yes!" She turned to Okoye, "I like her," she said while pointing to Maria.

The commander then slid her jaw to the side, before approaching the topic, "So, may I ask how things are going down in the infirmary?"

"Okay," Shuri said casually. "My travel medi-machine was having trouble getting Ms. Van Dyne's broken spinal connection to grow back together. So I ended up creating a vibranium clamp. Dr. Foster has already surgically affixed it onto the break."

"Is it working?"

"Yes," She grinned in excitement. "Now, we will not know exactly what the end result will be yet. The process does not reconnect nerves, it regrows them to make new connections. So hopefully these new connections will bring a fully functional nervous system about, and then Ms. Van Dyne will gain complete control of her lower extremities once again."

Maria had to blink away the tears that were suddenly present in her eyes; as a sense of relief came over her. She still obviously was not totally without stress and worry, but she'd take the positive news. "What about her brain swelling? Do you have any tech that can help with that?"

"Unfortunately, my tech does not do much for inflammation."

Okoye then stepped in, "But for many generations Africans have been using the leaf of the Datura Stramonium plant for that."

"Yes," Shuri nodded, "and because of the vibranium soil in Birnin Zana, our plants are more potent than anywhere else. Ms. Van Dyne is currently on a Datura drip. Within the last seven hours, her swelling has gone down by eighty-five percent."

Maria gasped, having to wipe her eyes before tears had escaped down her cheeks. "Eighty-five?" She repeated like it was too good to be true.

Okoye turned to Shuri, putting the pack of candies back between her teeth. "Go sit down, I will join you shortly."

The princess muttered, "okay," as she left to do as she was told.

Okoye then looked to Maria, like she could just read every emotion that she was experiencing. "One time during an outdoor training exercise, one of my Dora Milaje was knocked over, and on her way down she hit her head on the side of a reflective pool. I was terrified." Maria could see the pain in her face as she was recalling the memory. "I thought that she was going to die. But our doctors gave her a Datura drip, and twenty-four hours later she was awake, and twenty-four days later she stood by my side in battle as we defended our borders together."

Maria sniffled, as she tried to hold herself together while nodding. Okoye's story brought a true sense of hope to her, for the first time since the incident. "Thank you," was all she could manage to say to her in the moment. The general bowed her head. "I think I'm going to go now. Try getting a few hours of sleep," Maria said more to herself than to Okoye.

"Good," she smiled, "A leader cannot lead unless she is well rested."

Maria laughed in response to the sense of relief she was experiencing, "Yeah!" She then locked eyes with the other woman as she said, with the most sincerity, "Goodnight, General."

"Goodnight, Commander," She replied back in a similar intensity before Maria walked out of the cafeteria to make her way to her bed, finally.

~fourteen hours later~

Hope felt her head pounding at the back of her skull. She slowly brought her hand to her head, wanting to rub at it. She tilted her neck and slid her fingers to the back of her crown where it had hurt the most. But to her confusion, she found a bald spot with what felt like a protruding scar across it.

"Hope!" She heard Scott's voice. She opened her eyes to see him hovering over her face. "You're awake," he grinned before he laid his hands on her shoulders where he then kissed her cheek.

"Okay, don't break her anymore than she already is." She recognised her dad's gruff voice.

"What happened to my head," she groaned through a dry throat as she awkwardly attacked the uncomfortable nasal cannula that was blowing air into her nose; pulling it off of her face. She then looked past Scott, recognising the view through the window, realising that she was still in the Avengers Tower. Her gaze then fell to her parents who were standing at her feet, "Why are you guys here?" She could easily see them since the head of her bed was propped upright.

Scott looked over his shoulder to her parents, "Does she seem normal and totally lucid to you? She seems normal and totally lucid to me." He then whipped his head back to face her. "Um, what are things they ask in movies? Ah, Oh! Who is our current present?"

Hope scrunched her face in disgust, "a racist cheeto with a bad comb over."

"Okay, that's totally not wrong," The man nodded with a smile, obviously happy that she could answer his question.

"Okay, but my head though," she pointed to the anomaly on her scalp.

"Yeah ah, they kinda had to cut into your skull 'cause your brain finally got too big for your own head. But don't worry Doc Foster Humpty-Dumpied your skull back together again."

"I had a craniectomy?"

"Yeah, also, you broke your spine, but Kid Genius thinks you're all good now."

"Kid who…" then all of a sudden she remembered the events that had led to her lying in a hospital bed. "Oh my god, Maria?" She gawked in pure terror.

"It's okay. She's fine." Scott assured her, which led her to breathe a giant sigh of relief.

Hank took a step closer as he addressed his daughter, "Wait, what name did you just say?" He then looked to Scott, "You said that she rescued an agent but didn't say who. Who was she?" He demanded.

"Ah, Commander Hill," he answered like he were scared of him.

"Maria Hill?" His head snapped back to Hope. "Un-fucking-believable." He laughed out in agitated anger, "Why is it that every time you do something stupid, that woman seems to always be on the other side of the equation?"

"Wait, what?" Scott turned to look at Hope in confusion.

Instantly, Hope became angry with her father for both, verbally drawing the connection between her and Maria in front of Scott, and for his accusatory attitude that he held against herself in regards to Maria. "I didn't do anything stupid!" She snapped back at him.

"Getting your spine severed and your brain tossed all while cracking my suit seems pretty stupid to me."

"I knew it! So you do see our suits as your own."

"Of course I do. I made them."

"Hank," Janet jumped in, "for heaven's sake, she just woke up. Will you not antagonise her?"

"Me, antagonise her?" His tone was hostile towards his wife.

"Dad, just get out!" Hope shouted while pointing strongly at the door, completely furious with him. She was so done with how he treated them, especially how he treated her mother.

"Oh, that sounds perfect to me," he spat before stomping out of the room muttering under his breath, "I knew you guys joining the Avengers was a terrible mistake."

Janet came around to the opposite side of the bed that Scott was at, as she lovingly took her hand, "He didn't mean any of that. He's been worried sick over you. This is just his way of dealing with it."

"Still doesn't change the fact that he's an asshole," she huffed.

Scott then looked to his girlfriend as he asked, "What was he saying about Maria though?" His eyes pierced into hers, like he'd almost pieced together the puzzle. Hope swallowed, her extremely dry throat, as she began searching for the right words, but before she could do so much as come up with an answer, the door had opened.

"Oh, good you are awake!" a young African teen had nearly jumped with excitement.

"We heard commotion from the lab," an American woman in a lab coat had said as she'd entered behind the girl, whom Hope had assumed was her doctor.

"More like, we heard raised voices." The girl eyed them suspiciously, "You Americans are a very loud people." She then walked over towards Hope as she looked over her with awe and excitement. "Now that you are awake, Sleeping Beauty, we can finally test your legs. I think you will be impressed with my handy work."

"Wait, cool your rolls." The other woman walked over to where Scott was; the man then moving away from the bed for her to gain access.

"Oh, right. I guess you should check her over first, Doctor," the teen nodded.

Hope studied the girl as she asked, "Are you Princess Shuri?" Recognising her from the news, when Wakanda had opened their borders and offered to share their technologies with the world.

"The original, never been replicated." She used her thumb to point at herself. "Although," her face scrunched as she fell deep into thought, "if I somehow could figure out a way to do that, I sure would get a lot more work done."

"Okay," the doctor's eyes were fixed on Hope as if she were completely shocked, "you seem very coherent for just having woken up from a brain injury induced coma."

"I told you, Wakandan medicine is the best," Shuri smiled at the doctor.

"Hope, would you please direct your eyes to me?" The doctor quickly checked her pupil dilation with her pen light as she introduced herself. "By the way, I'm Doctor Foster, but you can call me Jane."

"Jane's been doing a lovely job in taking care of you for the past three days," Janet squeezed Hope's hand from the other side of the bed, where Hope was shocked in learning that she'd been out for that long.

"Okay," Jane placed out her, now turned off, pen light at an arm's reach away from Hope. "I'm going to need you to grab my pen." Hope complied and did so without any issue. Jane moved it around a few times, each time no more difficult than the other, including when she was asked to switch hands. "Good," she shook her head in disbelief, "amazing actually." She then cocked her head to the side, furrowing her brow. "I'm just curious," she placed the pen high up in the air. "Try catching this," she dropped the pen where Hope moved to grab it, but was too slow as it fell into her lap. "Okay, that's fine. I wasn't really expecting you to be able to do it."

"But I should've easily been able to catch that," Hope was startled by her failure of such a simple task.

"It's alright, your dexterity and reaction time should return during your recovery process."

"Can we test her legs now?" Shuri asked while activating a holographic screen just above her wrist.

"Yes, we can test them now," Jane nodded at her.

"What's that?" Hope motioned at the princess's wrist.

"It is your nervous system. The device on your spine is sending me readings."

Hope was referring to the holographic screen, and not so much what was on it, but once she heard her answer, she was definitely more interested in what was on it. "I have a device on my spine?"

"Yes."

Hope didn't know how she felt in hearing that information. Though, she was now a little more concerned if she would be able to walk in that moment based off of the conversation that was going on around her.

Hope then threw her stiff legs over the edge of the bed next to her mom. "Woah, slow down," Jane warned her. "I was going to get you to wiggle your toes first, not get you to jump out of bed."

Hope looked down to her bare feet. "Okay" as she began wiggling them. Shuri and Jane squeezed past Scott, pushing him further away from Hope as they came around to the other side, witnessing Hope's mobility.

"Yes!" Shuri cheered as she made a fist and thrust it in towards her body. "I am good," she congratulated herself which inspired Hope to try standing.

Hope slid off the edge of the bed as her mother helped stabilise her while she held onto her forearms, her feet hitting ground. Her knees instantly gave out on her which sent Scott rushing straight over to her where Hope reached a hand to his shoulder for support. He wrapped his arms around her extremely tender lower back, supporting her weight. Then together, him and Janet helped straighten her out to stand properly.

"You okay?" Scott asked her where she was quick to nod; determined to take a few steps now that her muscles felt like they were starting to respond.

"Please be careful," Jane cautioned her, " you're attached to both an intravenous and a catheter right now, so don't go far, you don't have much lead."

"Okay," Hope gently pushed both Scott's and Janet's helping hands away as she took three small laboured steps on her own.

Janet brought her hands to her face as she started to tear up, "Thank god," she cried. Hope turned to her with a smile, as she then took a step to her, throwing her arms around her in a hug; careful not to rip out the intravenous in her arm in the process. "Oh, Jellybean," she kissed her daughter on the cheek, "you had us all so worried."

"Your readings are looking really good," Hope heard Shuri say from behind her. "You will be kicking ass with the Avengers again in no time."

"Does that mean I can get out of here now?" Hope turned her head towards Jane, while keeping her arms around her mother.

"I don't know." Jane seemed absolutely stumped. "This is so new to me. I've never had a coma patient just wake up and be fine." She took a moment and thought on it a little more. "How's your head?" She finally asked.

"Pounding."

"Yeah, I'm hesitant to take you off of your drip."

"Actually," Shuri spoke up, "I've got dispatches " She walked over to a table off to the side of the room that seemed to have a bunch of her gadgets on it. She picked up something that looked like a thin grey coloured square of plexiglass that was about two inches in size. "You take the medication in its original form," Shuri then grabbed a leaf out from a pouch, "and you place it..." she then shifted her fingers to separate what looked like one sheet into two, "between like so," she sandwiched the plant in-between the plates, "and now you have a time release Datura patch. No need for an I.V." She walked over to Hope and pressed the device to her forearm. "See, a dis-patch. Get it? It is a patch that dispatches medicine."

"Well isn't that clever," Jane sounded impressed as she walked over to Hope, forcing Scott to step away once again. The Doctor then met Hope's gaze. "How about you get back on the bed and I'll free you from your tethers here."

Hope grinned at the idea of being discharged, "That would be great. I so want to go take a shower and eat something from the cafeteria." Hope then remembered her head wound. "Wait," she brought her hand under her hair to her shaven spot. "Can I shower with this?"

"Yes." Shuri stepped in. "I got the doctor to close up both your incisions. Ah, the one on your lower back and the one on your head, with my very own suturer. It instantly grafts your skin together, sealing the wound."

"That's remarkable," Hope muttered.

"Yeah," Jane smiled at her patient, "I've requested one for myself already," she said while she, along with Janet, helped Hope back into bed. "Okay," Jane addressed Shuri, Scott, and Janet, "I'd ask that you give us the room for a few minutes here."

Shuri was the first to head for the door, but just as the teen was about to leave, Hope called out to her, "Princess Shuri." The girl looked to her. "Thank you," she said with the utmost gratitude.

She smiled and bowed her head, "You are very welcome, Sleeping Beauty," and then left.

"I've got clothes for you here," Janet told Hope as she patted a bag that sat in a chair not too far away.

Hope smiled, "Thanks mom," as Janet leaned in to kiss her daughter once again before heading out.

"I'll ah, just be outside," Scott said somewhat awkwardly, like he was now somehow not sure if he should be there with her in the first place.

Hope nodded at him, guilt crashing down on her once again. She was convinced that he was suspecting some wrongdoing on her part now.

Jane then closed the curtains around her bed as she proceeded to take out her catheter and I.V.; freeing her up to get dressed, which she did slowly and carefully; constantly using the bed to stabilise herself.

Jane then gave her the rundown of what she were to feasibly expect during her recovery, which were; headaches, sleepiness, dizziness, confusion, and memory slips. Though, the doctor wasn't completely sure about these potential symptoms because she'd never seen Wakandan medicine in action before. So she wanted to keep a close eye on her, and check in with her every so many hours for the first stretch of her recovery.

When Hope eventually wobbled out of her hospital room, she instantly went to Janet, who had allowed her to take her arm for support. "Mom, do you think you could help me take a shower?"

"Of course," She lovingly pushed her daughter's messy hair out of her face.

"Ah, do you want me to walk you guys up to your room then?" Scott asked nervously.

She really didn't know how to answer him. She could see that he had questions for her, and was currently agitated by them. "If you'd like to," she hoped the answer would be fair; allowing him to determine what he wanted to do based off his own comfort level.

"I mean, If you don't need me, I can always go find Hank," he said almost like a threat, or as much as Scott Lang could make something sound like a threat; like he was responding to hurt feelings while cautioning her that he could go ask her dad to fill in a few blanks.

Hope nodded her head, feeling horrible for all the deceiving that she'd done over the past week. She was so in the wrong and it was distressing to her. "Okay, well I guess I'll catch up with you later then," her voice sounded frail as she yielded to his words of warning.

"Okay then," he almost snapped back before turning for the stairwell; disappearing through the door.

Hope sighed as she started moving towards the elevator, with Janet assisting her. "What was that about?" She asked Hope.

Hope dropped her head, shaking it, "I don't really want to talk about it right now."

"Alright," she responded gently, "but I'm here if you change your mind." Where Hope only nodded in reply.

They made it up to Hope's room, where she ended up sitting on the shower floor to wash herself; in the end, not needing to call her mother in for assistance. Hope took her time, allowing the hot water to fall down her back that was completely purple in one giant bruise. Her thoughts fell to Scott and the predicament that she found herself in with him. She knew that she had to tell him everything. She had to tell him the truth, but the only problem was, she was still not willing to admit the truth to herself, so how was she going to be able to tell him?

She sighed, dropping her head into her knees as the water trickled onto the back of her aching head. Her thoughts so quickly and easily falling to Maria and how she'd wished to see her, to make sure that she was truly alright from their fall, to collapse her sore, weary body into her arms and just be held by her. "Fuck," she muttered out loud, mad at herself for allowing her thoughts to go there, but she just couldn't help it. She never seemed to truly be able to keep her mind off of her.

Hope then heard a knock on the washroom door, "Jellybean, you okay in there?" her mom called.

Hope's head jerked up as she called out, "Yeah. Almost done."

"Okay."

Janet had snapped Hope back into gear as she continued her washing, now determined to get herself out there to deal with her shit. She needed to both see Maria and talk with Scott. She really didn't know what was going to happen out of it, but her current cowardly state was killing her; she had to grow a backbone, ironically, and do something about it. With that, she'd rinsed the conditioner out of her hair, hating the feeling of her bald spot whenever her fingers ran over it, and stood to exit the shower, equally scared and determine to get on with it, to see where her day would take her.


	13. Thirteenth

Hope and Janet were finishing up their meals in the cafeteria, at one of the small round tables, when Steve entered the floor, walking straight up to them with a warm smile.

"You have no idea how good it is to see you up and at it," he addressed Hope as he halted in front of their table.

"Thanks," she said as she pushed her hair behind her ear. Her mother had suggested to french braid her locks to hide her bald spot better, but they'd realised that her surgical incision area was located low enough, and her hair on top was thick enough, that she could decently hide it just by leaving her hair down. "Ah," Hope realised that she should initiate introductions. "This is my mom." She gestured to her, "I don't know if you guys have met yet."

"No, we have not, but it's such a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Van Dyne."

Her mother stood up, stepping to him. She took the hand that he'd instantly extended to her in her own, while placing her other hand on top of it. "The pleasure is all mine. Howard and Peggy both spoke so highly of you. I'm honoured to finally be meeting you."

The man smiled with such sincerity as he said, "I wish I could've known them later on in their lives. See them grow with age in the world that they'd had a hand in building."

"We may be returning to a world that had continued on in our absence, but we can always show respect to our friends by living up to the legacy that they left behind for us. Howard and Peggy did so much to honour your memory--"

"And I can now do the same and honour theirs." Steve nodded. "It's so nice to talk to someone who understands what it's like to be taken out of time and then dropped into a new one."

Janet laughed as she patted his hand, "All the references people make that you just don't understand."

"Yeah," He chuckled at her, before looking back over to Hope. "Are you guys done eating now?" He focused his attention back onto Janet, "Would you like me to take you on a tour of the place?"

"I'd love that." Janet then turned to Hope, "You think you can manage walking around for a bit?"

Hope used the edge of the table to stand up, "Yeah, I think so, as long as I can hang on to you again."

Janet let go of Steve's hand before she made her way to her daughter, letting her take her arm once again, as the captain grabbed their trays, where they then walked out of the food hall together.

They worked their way up from the cafeteria, only walking around the interesting floors, where Hope felt her legs grow more weary, and her nerves grow more anxious, at every new storey they'd reach. On each floor she was apprehensively assuming that she'd find Scott, but he was nowhere to be seen, and also with each floor, she knew that she was getting closer to Controls, where she'd apprehensively assumed Maria would be.

Eventually it was time, they were almost at the top of the tower when Hope gulped while the elevator brought them to their destination. When the doors pinged open they instantly caught sight of Tony, who turned his head away from a computer monitor and looked at them as if he were pleased to see them. He didn't have a smile on persay, but he looked happier than he normally did.

"And this is Controls," Steve led them out of the elevator. The room was large, with windows lining the space, the only wall that didn't have the setting sunlight streaming in through it, was one that was covered by a matrix of screens. There were also tables scattered throughout the area with various computers and such atop of them.

"Hey, Tony, I've just been giving the Van Dynes a tour of the building."

"How are you liking my tower, Auntie Janet? I'm assuming that Steve's been making everything sound way less interesting than it actually is. Like this places is completely self sustainable, totally off the power grid."

"Yes, I mentioned that to her," Steve sighed.

"I'm sorry, can we get back to the part when you just called my mom, 'Auntie Janet'?" Hope scrunched her face in confused intrigue.

"What? She's my auntie." He shrugged his shoulders, "She's the one who brought me to M.I.T. on my first day when I was fifteen, bet you didn't know that." She saw him and her mother smile at each other like they were recalling back to the mentioned memory. He then looked back to Hope as he said almost half-heartedly, yet she could still tell that he meant it, "And by the way, it's good to see you --you know-- not dead and all."

Janet patted Hope's arm, "Tony's been such a sweetheart, bringing me tea down to the infirmary these past few days."

While Hope shook her head in total bewilderment; not realising just how close her mother and Tony were, or that Tony was even capable of being kind and courteous, a movement caught her attention from the corner of her eye.

There off to the far end of the room, Hope had just noticed a pair of legs, hanging out from underneath a table, with one knee bent up. She recognised the long, thin limbs that were in black combat boots and blue fatigue pants. It looked like Maria was tinkering with computer wires or something of that nature that were hanging down at the back of the desk. Hope must have missed her there when she'd initially scanned the room, due to an office chair that was primarily blocking the view of the woman's lower body, which was already camouflaged in with her dark pants in her dark surroundings.

Hope instantly let go of her mother's arm as she worlessly wobbled over towards the woman across the room, leaving the trio to continue their conversation without her.

Luckily the desk Maria was working under was in an 'L' shape, so that Hope could grab at the end of it, as she was feeling her legs starting to give way beneath her. She quickly steadied herself and stood up straight, just as Maria shimmied her body down a bit, to pop her head out; obviously noticing her presence.

"Hey," Maria said, sounding shocked to see her, as she quickly got to her feet. Hope had assumed that the commander didn't notice them entering the room due to her head being so far underneath the desk that was situated such a ways away from the elevator and where they were communing.

Hope quickly took in the woman's appearance, as she stood in front of her. Maria was wearing a black short sleeved tee-shirt that exposed her arms that were covered in blue and green bruises, as well as red cuts that were partially scabbed over. Her hair was down and flat, her long bangs sweeping to the side, yet they did next to nothing in concealing the scabbed up wounds across the one side of her forehead. She had dark circles underneath her eyes and not a stitch of makeup on, and yet she was still the absolute most breathtaking sight Hope had ever witnessed. She was alive and well, and somehow even more beautiful than she'd remembered.

"Hey," Hope repeated back in a small voice. They stood there for a moment before Hope felt desperate to break the silence. "So, how are you feeling since your --ah-- freefall into the harbour?"

Maria looked to her oddly with a smirk, "Don't you meanourfreefall into the harbour?"

"Yeah. I suppose."

Maria dropped her head, shaking it, "You shouldn't have done that." She looked back to her, locking her stunningly piercing blue eyes onto her, "It was too big a risk, you could have died."

"Well, youwouldhave died. So it was worth the risk."

Maria huffed with a smile, " You know, I'm having a really hard time here trying to thank you for saving my ass, because I don't want to encourage you to ever do anything like that again."

"Hey," Hope smiled as she chose to act innocent, "I was just following your lead. You're the one who risked your life for the rest of us, so really, I should be the one hesitating to thank you, soyoudon't do anything like that again."

Maria's eyes twinkled at her as she smirked, "Well, I guess it's settled then. Neither of us should be thanking anybody in this scenario."

"Sounds reasonable to me," Hope nodded while holding back a giggle.

Maria's eyes then flickered to Hope's legs, "So, you're walking, I see."

"More like hobbling."

"Does it hurt?" Maria's tone came with a hint of concern as she focused back onto Hope's face.

"Honestly, the only thing that really hurts is when something touches the giant bruise on my back."

"That's it?" She sounded shocked.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you with my lack of spinal injury related pain." Hope felt the urge to hit Maria's arm in good fun, but held back from it.

"Wow, way to make me sound like a heartless monster, when really I would've settled for brain injury related headache. But now, I'm wondering why I even bothered worrying about you in the the first place, if all you were planning on doing was waking up from your three day nap with just a hobble and a bruise." She eyed her mischievously.

The fact that Maria admitted to being worried about her, sent a feeling of warmth to her core; it touched her in knowing that she had meant enough to her that her stay in the infirmary brought her some distress. "Hey," Hope pushed past the warm fuzzy feeling that she was having, as she played along with Maria's teasings, "I'll have you know that I did have a headache, but my awesome drug patch is seemingly keeping it at bay right now," she pointed to her upper arm. "And also, I have a bald spot at the back of my head," she then pointed to her scalp, "so I should at least get some pity compensation for that."

"I don't know," Maria shook her head, "all I'm seeing is a perfect motivator to now get a sweet undercut." Hope giggled at her, where she quickly turned her head, noticing her mother approaching. Hope then cranked her neck back to see Steve and Tony still chatting on the other side of the room.

"So, you must be the infamous Commander Hill." Janet smiled towards Maria as she stopped next to Hope. "It's so nice to finally meet you."

"Infamous?" Maria asked.

"Yes, you're the one who assisted my family. I probably wouldn't be standing here right now if it wasn't for your help."

"I don't know about that." Maria shook her head, "Your daughter would've gotten done what was needed no matter if I'd lent a hand or not." Maria then locked her gaze onto Hope's as she smiled at her, "She's too smart and determined to let anything stop her." Hope had to bite her lip to conceal her sheepish smile, while the compliment made her cheeks feel hot.

"This is true," Janet responded which made Maria look back to her, "but it still doesn't change the fact that you were her resource and our protector. So, thank you." Janet then stepped to Maria, placing her hands on her upper arms. "I'm just so glad to see that the next generation running S.H.I.E.L.D. is looking so bright."

Hope knew that her dad had mentioned what S.H.I.E.L.D.'s part was in their bridge development to her mom, not that he was pleased that they were involved in the first place. It was Hope, however, who'd told her that it was Maria who'd specifically helped them, though she was careful not to give any inclination that they had a close or intimate relationship during that time.

Janet then took a step back, releasing Maria, "Did you ever get to meet Peggy Carter before she passed?"

"No, unfortunately."

"That's too bad. She would've loved to see such an honourable person as deputy director of the organisation that she'd fought so hard for. Someone who literally puts themselves in the line of fire for their own people."

Maria blinked like she couldn't believe the words that were coming out of Janet's mouth. Hope almost wanted to cry watching them. She knew how much of a disapproving mother Maria had, this may have very well been the first time she'd heard words of praise coming from an older woman. "Wow," Maria nearly stuttered in shock, "you're so kind."

"See, I told you," Hope said, referencing their conversation from the other day in the cafeteria, in turn making Maria looked over to her, which was when Hope had noticed the wet sheen in the commander's blue eyes.

"Hey, don't get too attached. She's my auntie, I'm her favourite." Tony pushed in to the side of Maria, shoving a tablet in front of her. "I need you to do your thing."

Maria huffed as she looked down at the screen, where she was quick to shoot a glare at him. "I am not giving you admin access to all the data files in the system."

"Fine," he pulled the tablet back. "If not today, I'll get it another day," he said in his ordinary nonchalant way.

Maria flashed him the most disingenuous smile as she said, "Not if your dead, you won't."

"Did you guys just catch that?" Tony looked to Janet, "Auntie, Maria's threatening me with murder. And for the record," he lifted his finger, "this isn't the first time she's done this."

"Okay," Steve stepped in from behind Hope, "How about we go look at the penthouse rec area now?" He then smirked, "give Maria a chance to murder Tony in peace and without witnesses."

Tony looked Maria over before taking a giant step away from here where Hope had to bite back a chuckle, knowing full well that without his Iron Man suit, Maria could easily kick his ass.

Janet, smiling ear to ear, turned to Steve as she said, "That sounds lovely." She then looked to Maria, "Commander, please do make it quick. I don't want my dear boy to suffer."

Maria's face split into a grin as she responded like she'd just gotten an order from a commanding officer, "yes, Ma'am."

Janet then extended her arm to Hope where she took it, falling in line next to her as she turned around and started for the elevator with Steve. Hope then looked over her shoulder, back to Maria who was already smirking at her, which made Hope grin in response as she slowly turned her head away as they made their way back into the lift. Hope sighed, forgetting how incredibly amazing she had always felt whenever she was with Maria. She really had never known anything like it, it felt impossible, yet there it was.

Soon they found themselves walking around the penthouse, where Hope couldn't help but smile at the pool table that still had their game in session. She so wished that they could continue with it at some point. Finally Janet brought Hope to one of the sofas in the centre of the room, where she was grateful to slowly lower herself down as she was careful of her bruised back. Steve had excuses himself then as he'd promised to meet up with Sam at a veteran's meeting. Once him and Janet had said their farewells, her mom came over to sit next to Hope on the couch.

They sat in silence for awhile before Janet turned to her and asked, "So, Maria?"

Hope's breath caught in the back of her throat at the mention of her name. "What about her?" She played dumb while she could feel her mother's stare burrowing into the side of her head, where Hope refused to make eye contact with her.

"You know how after I got back from the quantum realm, I told you how I can sense the particles all around me. I can feel their vibrations, I perceive their relationship to each other, their relativity, how they push and pull and move."

"Yeah," Hope said as she was trying to figure out what her mother was getting at.

"Well, it's like everything has a rhythm, including people. Like every being has their own unique hum, their particles oscillate to a personal frequency that's individual only to them. Everyone's is different."

"Okay?" Hope looked to her in confusion, "So, are you trying to tell me that Maria's frequency is somehow interesting or something?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying," she nodded.

"How so?" Hope's interest was beyond peaked by this point.

Janet smiled, "It's exactly the same as yours."

"What?" Hope's head started racing with questions, "But you just said everyone's is different."

"Yes, that's what I'd gathered. This is the first time I've seen otherwise. I mean, I've only been out of the quantum realm for a short while now, so you two --I'd only assume-- wouldn't be the only ones like this."

"Okay, but what does this mean though?"

"I don't know. I'm not the one experiencing a shared particle frequency with somebody else." She then fixated her gaze onto her daughter like she was trying to coax the truth or if her, "What doyouthink it means?" Janet then shrugged her shoulders as she said casually, "If it means anything at all, that is." She said that last comment as if she were toying with Hope.

Before Hope could process through all her thoughts and emotions, she heard the elevator ping behind them.

Janet looked over her shoulder as she said, "Scott. There you are. Come here," She waved him over with a smile before standing up, "come sit with Hope while I wander off for a bit."

"Where are you going?" Hope asked in concern, all of a sudden not emotionally ready to face Scott.

"Tony wanted to show me his lab. So, I'm going to go see if he's still breathing so he can give me a tour." She started walking away as Scott approached the sofa. "Besides you two need some alone time. An opportunity to talk." She then disappeared through the, still open, elevator doors before she called out, "I'll catch up with you later, Jellybean."

Scott then awkwardly sat down next to her on the sofa, as Hope tracked his movement. "So, did you end up finding my Dad?" She asked with a little more annoyance then she'd initially realised that she'd had.

"No, I didn't even look for him," he dropped his head while he started fidgeting with his fingers. "I was just hanging out in my room this whole time, feeling like an asshole for --you know-- how I just straight up abandoned you earlier." He looked to her softly, "That was not cool, and I'm sorry."

Hope sighed, her guilt coming back once again, "You don't have to apologies. I sorta pushed you away." She huffed at herself, "I guess I've been doing that a lot recently, haven't I?"

"Hope, what's going on?" He asked her softly. She took a moment, taking in a deep breath before she nervously opened her mouth, like she was about to say something, but nothing came out. She just didn't know what to say, so she turned away, looking off into the distance, trying to get her thoughts together.

After a little while, Scott took her silence as an opportunity to say what was apparently on his mind. "When you were in a coma there, Maria dropped by to see you." Hope swallow hard in hearing what he'd decided to bring up, "I was asleep in the chair next to your bed, but I woke up when I heard her, she didn't know that though."

Hope was scared to ask yet she couldn't help herself. "Di- did she say anything?" She stuttered out softly.

"Yeah." She looked to him, needing to know what she'd said but absolutely terrified to ask him. He didn't deserve to be treated like her messenger. "She basically called you names and threatened you with violence if you didn't wake up."

Hope dropped her head as she chuckled out gently, "of course she did."

"Yeah, but the details she mentioned, coupled with the statement from your dad… and just the way she spoke to you, has got me questioning things."

"Questioning?" Hope asked, lifting her face to him, completely convinced that he'd connected the dots.

"Hope?" He gave her a knowing look as he tilted his head.

She shook her head as she blurted; the pressure of her guilt that she'd been bottling up, finally exploding, "I should've told you earlier. I'm so sorry. I didn't think she'd be here. I didn't know she'd be the one in charge of the Avengers project."

"You knew Maria from before," he said plainly, without any emotional indication attached to it.

She bit her lip and nodded. "While you were under house arrest, S.H.I.E.L.D. found out about our bridge. Maria and I, we…," she dropped her head, fixing her gaze on her hands in her lap, "well our paths had crossed then, on a few occasions actually."

"So you guys…," his question trailed off.

She nodded her head so stiffly that it felt more like she were vibrating it up and down; she felt so guilt ridden. "It only happened once... during our last meeting. We had to part ways afterwards. The bridge was attracting too much attention, but Maria fixed it so we could continue our work in peace…" She then remembered their issues that came after Scott had gotten involved with their project, "Well, until Ava and Burtch that is."

"You could have told me," his words weren't angry, they actually almost sounded supportive.

"Yeah, I know," She turned to him, for the first time, looking into his eyes.

"So why didn't you?" Hope slowly shrugged her shoulders. "It's because you still have feelings for her, isn't it?"

Hope shook her head, not able to admit it to herself, let alone to Scott. "You and me, we're so good together. We make sense. Next week we'll go home and everything will go back to normal," she rambled, scared to lose him altogether.

Scott sighed before he scooched closer to her and gently put his arm around her shoulders; hugging her into his side. "You're right, we are good together, we make a great team, but that doesn't have to change even if we aren'ttogethertogether. We'll always be partners, we're Ant-Man and The Wasp no matter what."

Hope looked to him; eyes instantly tearing up at his words, "This isn't fair to you. You've done nothing wrong. I'm the one who's wronged you. You should be mad at me. Stop being so nice."

"You haven't wronged me, not really. And it's not like I'm innocent here. I left you in my decision to go to Germany. You didn't get a choice in the matter. My actions sent me to the Raft and you on the run. And during that time, you found someone else. You can't blame yourself and say that it isn't fair to me, because that's not true."

"You didn't mean to leave me though."

"I know I didn't but that doesn't change the fact that it happened, and it was for selfish reasons too," He rubbed at the spot on her shoulder where his hand was resting, "But now I'm going to set things right and support you. Whatever you need, I'm here for you, and in whatever capacity you deem appropriate. Whether you're with me, Maria, somebody else, nobody else, it doesn't matter, because I'm not leaving you again. Okay?"

Hope nodded her head as she said through tears, "Okay," then kissed him on the cheek before she dipped her head to rest it on his shoulder. "I love you."

He folded up his arm to lay his hand on her head where he turned to mutter into her hair, "I love you too," before kissing her scalp. "And I'm so glad to have you back. I was so scared after Sam had flown you back to the tower the other day. At first, I thought that he was bringing back your lifeless body. You were so still in his arms." Hope turned to wrap her arms around him. "Then shortly after you were on the operating table with your skull being drilled into...," his words drifted off.

"I'm sorry I freaked you out," Hope squeezed him tightly, where they sat in silence for a bit, just soaking up eachothers company.

"Okay," Scott finally said, breaking the silence, as he got to his feet; reaching out to Hope, "It's time for you to go now."

"Go?" She grabbed his hands as he pulled her up, "go where?"

"I'm assuming the control floor. That's where Maria normally is, right?"

"I, ah, I didn't say that I was… I mean, I don't know if I--"

"You don't know if you want to go to the woman who's been on your mind all week? The one who you were with, before circumstances beyond your control split you apart? Who you literally almost died for?" He tilted his head to the side, "Come on. You need to go see your girl. Tell her you're now available." He started to pull her towards the elevator.

"What if she doesn't want me back though? What if she's moved on?" A sense of panic fell over her.

"Impossible," he shook his head with a smile that she could tell he was forcing for her behalf. He then pressed the call button for the lift where they had stopped to wait for it. "Now, if only this elevator would get here a little faster. I'm trying my hardest to stay strong here but we both know I'm not very good at the ol' stiff upper lip thing. I just really don't want to start crying in front of you."

"Scott?" She huffed; guilt overwhelming her once again.

"Nope, nope, I shouldn't have said that out loud. I'm sorry, that's my bad," he shook his head before looking at her, "But you still gotta go." The elevator chimed open where Scott led Hope inside to grab the railing at the back. He then pressed the button for the control floor before stepping backwards out of the lift. "I'll see you later," he said as the doors closed; separating the two of them.

Hope didn't even get the time to pull herself together during the short ride down, for that within seconds the elevator stopped and open its doors, where Hope was beyond terrified to step out into the room. She had never felt so much fear in her life as her head flurried with questions. What if Maria was busy right now and couldn't talk? What if someone was with her and she couldn't give her the undivided attention that she needed? What if she was alone and totally willing to give her the time, what would she say then? Or the most frightening thought of all, what if she figures out exactly what to say but Maria still rejects her anyway?

When she slowly exited the elevator, she quickly scanned the room, finding only Maria, who was standing, bent over, looking at the computer monitor on a desk across the way from her.

Hope took a deep breath before she started wobbling her way across the floor, towards the other woman.

Maria turned her head to the side, catching sight of her, where she was quick to stand straight at attention. "I just saw your mom steal Tony away." She fixed her eyes on Hope's teetering legs. "I thought she was in charge of keeping you upright while you hobble?" Smirking, she looked up at her with shining eyes.

"Well," Hope smirked back at her through her nerves, "she left me in Scott's care, who then abandoned me in the elevator and sent me here."

Maria tilted her head in what looked like confused concern, "And why would he do that?"

Hope stopped in front of Maria as she fixed her gaze on her soft sapphire eyes, which somehow made her feel equally scared as they did safe, "He knew that I'd prefer being in your care instead of his."

"Mine?" Her question came gently.

"Yeah," Hope practically laughed out in pure anxiety, rubbing at the back of her neck. She then settled herself a bit before saying, "that's kind of exactly why we broke up just now."

Maria's gaze bore into Hope's as she stood in a silence that probably only lasted a few seconds, but to Hope, it felt like an eternity. "You broke up?" She asked so softly that it barely came out.

Hope's heart was pounding so intensely in that moment that she could hear it echoing in her own ears, as she took a single step closer to her, not breaking eye contact, while she muttered, "Maria," in complete desperation.

Maria didn't hesitate to respond to the woman's advances, as she slid her hand to the side of Hope's neck, her thumb resting on her cheek, before she took a step closer herself, closing the gap between them, as she slowly leaned in, and ever so gently pushed her mouth to Hope's.

Hope's eyes shut immediately as she parted her lips to receive Maria's tongue that was already searching for hers. Hope then wrapped her arms around her, falling completely into her body as she pressed her mouth so hungerly into their soft kiss, like she wanted to consume Maria whole.

Maria's other hand then found its way to Hope's lower back, yet when she placed it there, she did so with the most gentle of touches, like she'd remembered that she was badly bruised, which made Hope feel a tingle of warmth throughout her body. Maria's hand then slowly moved down as she slipped her fingers underneath the hem of her shirt. The feeling of her bare skin on her own made Hope moan inside Maria's mouth as she needily moved her hand to the back of Maria's head, tangling her fingers in her hair as she gently pulled at it where Maria gasped in response to her actions. The commander then dragged her hand softly up her tender spine, making Hope tremble underneath her touch; her legs instantly quivering as her stomach knotted.

That was it, in that moment all of Hope's worries that she hadn't truly know what she'd wanted, had completely disappeared. There wasn't a doubt in her mind, she knew for a fact that Maria was the person she'd been waiting for her whole life. That feeling she had the last time they'd kissed wasn't Hope reacting to their secretive and high stakes relationship, it was her heart reacting to the notion that it'd found a home in Maria. It just took until this kiss for her head to realise it too. To recognise that their beings had shared the same cosmic song.

Just then Maria pulled away from their kiss as she mumbled into her mouth, "god, I've missed you," before capturing her lips once again.

Maria's words had hit her hard, as they had indicated that she'd been thinking about Hope just as Hope had been thinking about her during their time apart. The possibility that Maria had felt the same way was too much, which had made Hope's knees buckle beneath her.

Maria was quick to catch her before she hit the ground, where she swiftly moved her hands under her butt; lifting her up into her arms with a grunt. Hope then loosely hugged Maria's neck as she wrapped her legs around her waist, while the commander turned them around and slid Hope onto the desk next to the computer. "Ah," Maria winced while dropping her head to Hope's shoulder.

"I'm sorry. I guess I'm kind of heavy," She said in embarrassment.

"No you're not," Maria ripped her head up to look at her, "it's just my shoulder."

"Oh, god, you were shot!" Hope had totally forgotten; just remembering in that moment as she moved her hands to the shoulder that she was favouring, pushing the collar of her shirt down to reveal a bandage.

"It's okay. It's fine," Maria quietly hissed as Hope gently laid her hand over her wound.

Then it all metaphorically came crashing down on top of Hope, as she started to laugh at both of their current states; dropping her forehead to Maria's, mindfully avoiding her lacerations, "Why are we both so broken?"

Maria chuckled, "'cause we're idiots who don't wear Kevlar and parachutes."

Maria then placed her hand on Hope's thigh as she began rubbing it. "How are your legs? Should I take you to the infirmary?" She asked with worry, yet her busy hand was bringing its own separate effects on Hope's body, that were contrary to Maria's questions of concern and nurturing intent.

Hope pulled her head back as she brought her hands to Maria's scalp, pushing her fingers through her hair, starting at her temples. She then shook her head as she gripped her legs around Maria's body, giving her hips a firm squeeze, "I'm fine," she smiled then mischievously bit at her own bottom lip, with her body practically vibrating from Maria's thumb that was just previously sliding over her inner thigh.

Maria chuckled as she leaned into her, "Okay, message received. Now would you kindly stop vise-gripping me?" Maria stared into her eyes as she spoke with her lips ghosting over Hope's, "I feel like you're about to crack me open with your power thighs." Hope giggled while loosening her hold around her as she pressed her mouth back to Maria's; kissing her once again as she felt the commander smiling against her lips.

Hope didn't know how long they'd remained in that spot, taking in every ounce of the other as they suckled, bit, and devoured each other in an endless amounts of kisses, before they were startled by a voice. "Hey, Maria, that's a cute new top you've got there." They both whipped their heads to the side, finding Natasha smiling at them while leaning up against the desk that Hope was currently sitting on, just about an arm's length away.

"God dammit, Tasha! What did I say about sneaking up on me like that?" Maria snapped at her, while seemingly more annoyed than mad.

Natasha ignored her question as she reached out to Maria, pulling her small Bluetooth out of her ear before putting it into her own. "So," the redhead then focused her attention onto Hope, "our girl here has slept like five whole hours in the past three days. You think you could take her to bed?"

"You only slept five hours?" Hope looked to Maria. "I guess that explains these dark circles here," Hope gently cupped her face, gliding her thumbs across the bags under her eyes. "Why have you been up for so long?"

"I was busy securing the tower."

Natasha then leaned closer into Hope as she spoke under her breath, "more like she was busy worrying about you."

"Tasha, shut it, and bugger off! Won't you?"

Natasha smiled at her reaction, "I'm not going to shut anything, so your only option is to bugger off yourself. And besides, you guys are the ones in my work space here, anyway."

Maria narrowed her eyes at Natasha, where Hope chuckled at their childish behaviour. "Okay, come on now," Hope grabbed Maria's good shoulder as she carefully slid off of the tabletop, where Maria was quick to slip her arms around her; making sure she didn't collapse when her feet hit ground. Hope stabilised herself instantly as she patted Maria's arm, "I'm walking to your bed, so if you don't want me falling over on my way there, you're going to have to come along with me." She then started for the elevator on her own, squeezing past Maria. She only got two steps away before she felt the other woman's arm gliding underneath her own; giving her a strong support to help her walk. Hope beamed when she'd gotten her way, glad that Maria didn't hesitate in allowing her to take her to bed.

"Hope, I'm glad you're back," Natasha spoke up from behind them, "Now we finally have someone who Maria listens to. This is a miraculous day."

"Please don't listen to her," Maria grumbled into Hope's ear as she called the elevator; its doors opening instantly for them.

Hope bit down on a grin as she grabbed the handrail in the lift, where she then proceeded to pull Maria in with her. The commander smirked while reaching for the button of the floor that held her apartment; pushing it before wrapping her arms around Hope as they both leaned up against the wall; hugging each other close. Hope sighed allowed her head to fall into the crook of Maria's neck, a smile fixed on her face, still not fully believing how blissfully happy she felt in that moment as she finally held her girl once again. She may not have been ready to admit it out loud, but she already knew it in both her heart and her head, that she was utterly and hopelessly in love with Maria Hill.


	14. Fourteenth

Maria had guided Hope to her room, where she could feel the other woman leaning on her more heavily during their walk; clearly her body growing weaker with physical exhaustion the further they went.

Hope then grabbed the wall right outside of Maria's apartment, letting go of the commander completely, as Maria opened her door, flicking on the lights. She then looked back to Hope who seemed a bit nervous; the confidence she had just moments ago, now lost.

"I thought you said you were walking to my bed? This is just my door," Maria smirked at her, hoping that all she needed was a proper invitation. Hope's face split into one of her beautiful smiles, before she reached her hand out towards Maria, where she then seized it and pulled her inside, closing the door behind them.

Maria then guided Hope a single step in, planting her hand on top of her dresser, so that she could use it to lean up against, as Maria wandered off to her closet that was off to the right of the entry. "Go on, it's right over there," Maria pointed to the bed that was on the far side of the room, as she pulled a fresh pair of sleepwear out for herself.

"You're not going to help me over?" Hope asked in confusion.

"Nah, I don't think so," Maria shrugged mischievously. "I'm banking on you having to collapse onto it once you get there if I don't help you stay upright," the commander wandered over towards her bathroom.

"Where are you going?" Hope huffed at her with a smile.

"Brush my teeth, put my pyjamas on, maybe I'll even take a shower, we'll see," she said while hanging onto the doorknob. "Make yourself comfortable once you've fallen down there, I shouldn't be too long if you require assistance in any way," Maria said teasingly before shutting herself inside the washroom.

"You know, you really suck at this whole caregiver thing!" She heard Hope yell to her.

Maria then popped her head out and said, "or am I actually just really good at hostage situations," she flashed a fake smile of innocence before pulling herself back into the room; shutting the door as she called out, "try running away now, Hobbles!"

Maria pressed her ear against the door where she could hear Hope chuckling. She then waited a moment, listening to make sure that she actually got to the bed alright, where she was pleased to hear the sound of springs, accompanied with a flop noise, where her bed was located.

Maria was then quick to get ready, pushing through her exhausted state, only taking a short shower to hose down her body, not bothering with washing her hair since she'd recently done it already. She soon exited the bathroom with minty fresh breath, while wearing a pair of grey flannel pants, and a white S.H.I.E.L.D. t-shirt.

The commander had to chuckle at the sight of Hope, who was flopped out onto her side, crosslength on the bed, with her feet hanging off. "Have you moved at all since you fell there?" Maria whent to turn her bedside lamp on and flick the room lights off.

"No," Hope muttered. Maria then went to her, crawling to her head as she sat cross legged on the mattress, right in front of her. "I tried to move, but my back hurts," Hope flopped her arm onto Maria's lap.

Maria then gently pulled Hope's shirt up, as she looked to her back. "Oh, wow," she gasped at just how big and purple the bruise was. "This really does look intense." She ran her hand softly over it, where she had then stopped at her spinal surgery scar. Her eyes soon began to water as she was reminded, yet again, of Hope's time in the infirmary.

As Maria kept her hand on her back, Hope had moved her arm on Maria's lap to lightly grasp her thigh, while she pulled her forehead into Maria's knee. Maria then placed her other hand on Hope's head, as she gently pushed her fingers into her hair, resting her palm over her other scar, while she blinked away the tears in her eyes.

After a moment Hope murmured, "I can't believe I'm letting you touch my bald spot."

"It's not bald anymore." Maria smirked as she moved her hand to rubbed her fingers over it, "You've got hair here growing. You're already halfway to a wicked undercut."

Hope turned her head, looking up at her as she grinned, "You're really not giving up on that, are you?" Maria chuckled, as she honestly didn't care one way or another on how Hope wanted to wear her hair, for that she would be beautiful in any hairstyle, it was just so much fun in teasing her about it. Before Maria could think up a retort, she yawned really big, her eyes watering, yet again, in the process. "Okay," Hope patted her leg, "You need to lay down and sleep."

"You're going to stay with me for awhile, right?" She asked vulnerably, dropping her teasing tone.

"Well, I don't think I could get up even if I tried," She smirked; reaching up to Maria's face while wiping a tear away that had escaped down her cheek. "My body has completely given up on me here."

Maria smiled at her, ecstatic that she'd agreed to stay with her, before she leaned over sideways to Hope's feet, where she slid off her shoes and socks for her in preparation for bed; not bothering to offer her pyjamas for that she looked comfortable already in her athleisure wear. Then she got onto her knees and grabbed her comforter, by her pillows, and yanked it down to herself; in turn, completely covering Hope's body, minus her feet.

"Hey!" came a growl from underneath the blankets.

"You're in the way. It's not my fault," Maria grinned while playfully poking at the blanket that was over Hope's head.

Hope then threw the comforter off of herself as she huffed with eyes of both glee and intrigue, "you know, for a cold, stoic, commander, you're kind of a goofball behind closed doors."

"I assure you, it's the sleep deprivation and nothing more." Maria stood up out of bed while she took Hope's hand, gently pulling her up into a sitting position. "I'm normally an extremely serious person."

Hope eyed her suspiciously as she said, "Uh huh, sure you are."

Maria smirked before she said, "Okay, grab onto me for a sec while I pull the covers down." Hope did as she'd requested while Maria helped her to her feet, where she was then quick to throw the blanket out of their way before placing her back down onto the edge of the mattress. "Do you want to lay on your side again?" Maria asked.

"I kind of want to be on my back. Once I'm on it, it should be fine. It's just the initial pressure that hurts."

"Okay then," Maria took a step to the head of the bed as she stacked her pillows so that Hope didn't have to lay down completely horizontally. She then crawled to the other side of the mattress nearest the wall. "Kay, feet up," she smacked the sheets at the foot of the bed where Hope did as she was told. Then Maria carefully guided her to lay down, using her one good arm, holding behind her shoulder, as she eased her to the pillows. Hope's face then contorted in pain as she shimmied her butt over a bit, to straighten herself out. "Are you okay?" Maria studied her as she settled into her spot.

"Yeah, but now I regret wearing this underwire bra." She squirmed as if her undergarment was poking her.

"Do you want help taking it off?" Maria made sure to ask in an innocent way, really just wanting to make her more comfortable. Hope locked onto her gaze as she silently nodded. "Kay," Maria nodded back before fixing her eyes onto her navy blue, loose fited t-shirt. "Is it a back clasp or front?"

"Back."

Maria slipped her hands underneath her shirt where Hope was quick to arch her back for her while her fingers went to unhook her bra. Maria then speedily slid her hands out of her shirt, trying to be respectful. She may have had permission to run her hands as she pleased over Hope's body the last time they were in bed together, but she'd not received that invitation, as of yet, to do it again. Hope then maneuvered out of her bra straps, sliding her arms out of her sleeves, before pulling her garment out from the bottom of her shirt; then throwing it on top of the dresser, off to the side, after her shirt was properly put back on.

"Better?"

"Much," Hope smiled before she took a hold of Maria's uninjured arm, "Kay, sleep time," she pulled her down to her torso, her head resting right underneath her breasts. Hope then reached behind Maria's back and grabbed hold of the covers; tossing them over their lower bodies.

Maria rested her sore shoulder atop Hope's body as her arm lay across her stomach. Her hand then slid under her shirt, as her fingers innocently moved over Hope's rigid abdominal muscles, where Maria basked in the ripple of her incredibly sculpted body. Hope then wrapped her strong arm around Maria's back; bringing her hand to her head, gently combing her fingers through her shoulder length hair, which sent a tingling sensation down Maria's neck. Hope then rested her other hand on Maria's forearm, claiming it in a loose grasp.

Maria closed her heavy eyelids as she sighed in total bliss, feeling like she'd arrived home for the first time in her life. There, in Hope's arms, was where she'd longed to stay for all eternity.

After a few silent minutes, Maria's mind started to flutter away into obscurity as sleep had almost taken her over completely, when Hope had then asked softly, "Maria, are you still awake?"

Maria mumbled, "Somewhat. Why?"

"Nothing. Never mind. Go to sleep." She stroked Maria's hair.

Maria's curiosity got a hold of her as she forced herself to be alert, prying her eyes open, "No, It's alright. What is it?"

"It's just." Hope sighed, "I'm going back home at the end of the week."

Maria swallowed hard, the mentioned fact tearing her out of her perfect state of bliss. "Yeah," she muttered.

"Yeah," Hope repeated in the same downtrodden tone.

Maria then slowly started to panic. She didn't really think about it much until then, but the fact was, she was married to her work. The longest relationship she'd ever had was with Natasha, who happened to work directly with her at S.H.I.E.L.D, and, ironically, what they had wasn't even technically an official thing. "I'm called away a lot," she said.

"Huh?"

"For work, I'm called in to report to various places around the globe, for unknown lengths of time, and often I have to leave at the drop of a hat," she explained.

"So basically, you're currently stationed here in New York, and still aren't even always around."

"And you're located in San Francisco."

"Literally on the opposite side of the country from here," Hope's words faded off.

Maria was desperate as she pointed out, "We'll see each other when the Avengers are called to action. And I can fly to you on my off time." Her mood soon fell, realising that that was probably not enough for Hope. Maria had girlfriends before that had broken it off with her for that very reason. She then sighed, "But, all-in-all you won't get the time commitment that you deserve from me." She instantly felt defeated as she put forth a fear based opinion, "Maybe you shouldn't have broken up with Scott. I can't give you the stability he can."

"Excuse me!" Hope snapped at her sharply, which took Maria completely by surprise. "Are you telling me you don't want to be with me? That you'd rather me be with somebody else?" She sounded crossed.

"No!" Maria's head jerked up as she turned to look at Hope who was eyeing her in what looked like hurt confusion. "God, no! The thing I want most in this world is for us to be together. I just don't want to be the cause of your unhappiness because I can't give you what you need." Maria could feel her body vibrating in that moment; absolutely terrified that she was about to lose Hope.

Hope's eyes instantly softened as she gently grabbed at Maria's arm, "Come here," she said as she coaxed her higher up onto her elbow so that she could bring her head to hover over her own. The woman underneath then lovingly cupped Maria's face in her hands as she locked her eyes onto hers, the glow of the lamp light setting off her beautiful green irises as they seemed to look into Maria's very soul. "If it comes down to it, I'd rather see you one week out of the year than be with anybody else."

Maria's body went from a subtle vibration, to a full on shake as her eyes began shedding tears in hearing her words. It was beyond what her exhausted state could handle. Hope was choosing her as she was. She liked her enough to commit to her when she'd had an easier option in somebody else, in Scott. Maria's head started racing as her thoughts then fell back onto how Hope had literally almost died for her. How her spine was severed and her brain injured, all in the pursuit of keeping her safe. The only thing Maria wanted to do in that moment was tell Hope just how much she'd loved her, but she feared that she'd scare her with such a strong declaration after such a short amount of time of them knowing each other. Instead, Maria dropped her head to Hope's, colliding their lips together. She kissed her with such desperation, more than she'd ever felt before. She needed Hope to know how much she'd meant to her.

Maria brought her hand to Hope's cheek while she continued to shake and weep into the kiss that Hope had instantly reciprocated, when eventually Hope, ever so slightly, pulled Maria's head away from hers, breaking contact with her mouth, as she then quickly pressed her lips onto her wet cheeks; fiercely kissing her tears away. Her gentle touches came like comforting raindrops on her face. She then worked her mouth to her forehead, lovingly kissing it before she mumbled in a soothing tone, "Okay, baby, lay down." She then gently pushed Maria's head to rest on her shoulder while keeping her hand positioned on her crown, while her other, rubbed at her back in a calming manner; sending a warmth throughout her body. "Go to sleep," she hummed as she pressed her cheek to Maria's forehead.

Maria sniffled as she possessively placed her hand on Hope's other shoulder; her eyes still wet and closed, as she could feel herself quickly shutting down. Within moments her exhausted brain had given up as she'd fallen fast asleep, in the safety of the arms of the woman whom she was utterly in love with.

* * *

There was an odd foreign chiming noise that had aroused Hope from her sleep. She opened her eyes, having to orientate herself on her surroundings, instantly smiling when she'd recognised the room and looked down to Maria, who was stirring awake right next to her, her body tucked into Hope's side; where she'd assumed the woman had rolled off of her at some point during the night.

Maria groaned, as she got up onto her elbow and reached over Hope's head, quickly pressing a button on a small wall panel just beside the headboard. "Hill," she said, somehow quite coherently for just being woken up.

"Hey, Maria." Hope recognised Natasha's voice. "Is Hope still there with you? 'Cause Jane is wanting her to check in with her in the infirmary." Maria looked to the mentioned woman, a lazy smirk on her face, where Hope couldn't help but smile back at her and her messy hair, as she reached over to comb her fingers through the part that was standing on end.

"What time is it?" Maria dropped into a groggy voice, like she didn't care how she'd sounded, now that she knew that it was her friend on the other side of the line, while she collapsed her body on top of Hope's; the woman beneath chuckling as she wrapped her arms around her.

"Oh-five-hundred." Maria moaned into Hope's neck in response to the number that Natasha had just said. "Don't complain, you don't have to get up, Hope does."

"I wasn't complaining, that was Hope," Maria grumbled.

"It was not," Hope defended herself as she poked her finger annoyingly inside Maria's ear as a punishment.

"Ah!" Maria lazily swatted her hand away, while refusing to move her head from its spot on her.

"Don't worry, Hope," Natasha said, "I know a Maria growl anywhere. She can't blame her childish sounds on you when I'm around."

"Okay," Maria huffed in annoyance while lifting her body and reached out to the panel, once again. "Hope will report to the infirmary. Thanks. Bye," she said shortly before hanging up on Natasha. She then proceeded to fall back on top of Hope.

"I really like Natasha. She has such a beautiful way with you," Hope hummed through a smirk as she combed through Maria's hair with her fingers, now feeling totally awake.

"I forbid you from becoming friends with her. She's a terrible person," Maria groaned into her collar bone. Hope chuckled at her ridiculousness before she grabbed a hold of Maria's upper body and shifted it off of herself. "Hey," Maria huffed at her actions, "my pillow."

Hope could only shake her head at just how cute, stone cold Commander Hill got when she was fighting to stay awake. Hope knew, however, that Maria had the capacity to put on a tough act even then in her sleepy state, but the fact that she wasn't, made Hope grin with joy. Maria clearly felt safe enough while showing her vulnerabilities to her which made Hope only fall even more in love with her.

Hope then awkwardly, and a little painfully, pushed herself up, swinging her legs off the side of the bed, before she stretched her arms to the ceiling with a yawn. She then grabbed her shoes and socks, that were right beside her on the floor, and began putting them on. "Wait, slow down," Maria mumbled, "I still have to get dressed."

Hope looked behind her to see Maria, who was practically passed out with her eyes closed, hugging a pillow. She smiled towards her adorableness before ordering her softly, "you're not doing anything but staying here, in bed, and getting some more sleep." Hope then turned to grab her bra and put it on; wincing as it scraped her sensitive back in the process.

"I have to walk you over," Maria's words barely came out after far too much time had passed, like it had taken that long for her brain to process Hope's last words to her.

"I'll be fine on my own." Hope turned to her again. "Besides, I can hold onto the wall if need be," she pulled the blanket up to Maria's shoulder before she leaned down to kiss her cheek and softly mutter into her skin, "I'll see you later, my sleepy bitch."

Maria then mumbled out incoherently, "I cold bitch no sleepy." Which made Hope chuckle. She found it utterly remarkable in just how fast she'd fallen back asleep, truly realising in that moment as to just how exhausted Maria must have been.

She didn't get up straightaway, instead she sat there for a bit, completely mesmerised by just how peaceful her beautiful Maria had looked in that moment. She just could not believe that the woman laying there was hers; it gave her butterflies just thinking about it.

Finally she found the strength to tear herself away from Maria as she got to her feet, pleasantly surprised by the fact that she didn't have to grab a surface around her to assist her up. She actually couldn't believe just how sturdy she was after taking a few steps. She still felt a little clumsy, but it was nothing like the weakness she was feeling the day before.

Hope then quietly slipped out of the room before heading off to the elevator at the end of the hallway.

On her way down to the infirmary, she remembered the time of day; five o'clock a.m. Which was the time that her dad usually had his morning cup of coffee; he'd always been an early riser. Hope then sighed, quickly pressing the cafeteria floor, wondering if he'd be in there, keeping his routine.

Not to her surprise, when the elevator door had opened, she found a completely empty cafeteria save for Hank, who was sitting at a table, mug in hand. Even despite the time zone difference of the coastlines, his body always seemed to be able to sense a sunrise while having this need to be awake for it. Hope then pushed the'hold door open'button as she called out to him. "Dad," she motioned with her head for him to join her in the lift.

He looked to her, then, without a word, got to his feet, where he proceeded to walk over and into the elevator, coffee in hand.

"Infirmary?" He said as the doors closed, noting the light for the medical floor lit up.

"Yeah, I have a checkup," she said plainly.

"So," he looked into his coffee cup as he said, "I managed to fix the crack in your suit."

Hope tried to conceal a smirk, noting that he'd referred to the wasp suit as hers. "Good," she nodded as the elevator stopped at their floor, doors opening.

They then both stepped out and began walking the hall as Hank continued, "I think I may have figured out a way to tweak those blasters so they can manipulate organic structures. We could possibly work on them together when we get back home, if you'd like," he suggested as if he were extending an olive branch to her. He then turned to her, for the first time, as he smirked, "The greatest Avenger should be going out with the greatest tech."

Hope smiled back, knowing that this was his twisted way of apologising to her by showing her his support. "Sounds like a plan," she said; agreeing to work with him.

"Good," he nodded just as they stopped outside of a room in which they could see Jane inside of, through the window in the door.

"Well, I'm gonna go in now." Hope pointed to her destination. "Thanks for walking me to my appointment."

The man simply nodded before she opened the door and left him behind.

Her examination didn't take long, just over a half hour where Jane had shown her the digital readings from the device on her spine, where they'd looked great. She also gave her fresh medicine for her patch, and checked her reflexes and finemotor skills, which were still not at a hundred percent yet.

Once she thanked the doctor she exited the room, surprised to see her mother sitting in a chair in the hallway. "Hey. What brings you down here?" Hope asked with a smile of greeting.

"Your father," she got up to her feet. "He told me you were here. I'm pretty sure he wanted me to see how your checkup went so I could report back to him." She stepped to her daughter. "I told you he cares. He just has an odd way of showing it."

"Because apparently getting you to come down here instead of just waiting himself for me to finish, was showingtoomuch care?" She rolled her eyes, but yet was not surprised by his actions.

"Well, your father is an emotionally stunted idiot, I'll give you that," she smirked at Hope. "So, how did it go? What did Jane say?"

"Everything's looking good. She's going to have a physiotherapist come in and work with me in the gym later on today. But she seems very hopeful that I'll make a quick and full recovery."

"Oh that's wonderful, Jellybean." she reached out and ran a finger through her unbrushed hair.

"Want to grab breakfast with me?" Hope asked, as she decided to leave Maria to sleep; not wanting to wake her by returning to her room.

"I'd love that." She hooked her arm with Hope's before they turned to the elevator, "then you can tell me all about your conversation with Scott yesterday," she then quickly added, "well, if you feel like sharing, that is."

"Sure," Hope nodded before they made their way up to the food hall. She actually felt excitement, with a dose of nerves, to share with her all that had transpired from the last time that they'd seen each other.

The cafeteria floor was still empty when they'd arrived, but they could hear the kitchen staff in the back prepping food. However, both Janet and Hope settled on just a simple bowl of raisin bran each, from the cereal dispensers that were already out. Hope also made herself a cup of coffee and Janet a cup of tea, using the single serve hot beverage machine.

Once they sat down together, Janet turned to her and asked, "so?"

"So, Scott" Hope nodded, ready to jump right in. "Yeah, our conversation was a bit intense, but good." Hope stirred at her cereal as she spoke, "We --ah-- ended up breaking up. It was mutual," Hope thought on it a bit more as she scrunched her face, "well sort of." Then she nodded confidently as she looked to her mother, "but we're still good though. We're still friends."

Janet studied her face, like she were trying to figure out if Hope really was genuinely okay, but within a brief moment, she smiled softly like she fully believed her daughter, as she said, "Well I'm glad to hear that you two are in a good place." She put her hand on Hope's arm as she rubbed her thumb over it. "Scott's a good man."

"Yes, he is." Hope said with the utmost conviction, truly in awe of how amazing he was to her.

"So, back to my other question," Janet eyed her playfully, as she gave her arm a squeeze before letting go of it.

"What other question?"

"The one from yesterday." She flashed her a not-so-innocent smile, "The one about Maria." Hope had to look away as she bit down a grin, just thinking about her made her feel on air. "Your whole face just lit up, you know that, right?" Janet chuckled.

"I...ah." Hope dropped her head as she tried to shake off her grin. "Well… we," she cleared her throat. "I spent the night in her bed last night." She then looked to her mom who was smirking at her. "We just slept," Hope clarified, "We were both exhausted." Her thoughts then went to the image of Maria hugging her pillow before she'd left her that morning. "I'm sure she's still passed out in bed now actually," she chuckled out, reminiscing on her sleepy adorableness.

"Tell me about her," Janet asked like she were excited for Hope.

"You mean, besides her being beautiful and brilliant, with a great sense of humour, who just happens to be super badass too?" Hope sighed deeply, totally smitten with her.

"Yeah, besides all that," Janet laughed.

Hope stifled a chuckle before sighing in happiness. "She gets me," Hope smiled; her thoughts went to their first few encounters. "Even before we became allies, she had this ability to just see me." Hope gazed out the window, catching sight of the sunrise starting to breach the horizon. "It's like there's this safety and honesty with her, that I can tell her anything," she shook her head at how ridiculous she probably was about to sound, "it feels like somehow she already knows everything about me, and has already accepted it as a part of me, even though she doesn't know the exact details of it all yet."

"And there is your answer to your'shared particle frequency'question that you had." She turned to see her mother who was beaming at her where Hope couldn't help but smile back. Hope had truly felt as if she'd found her soulmate in Maria.

"So," Hope couldn't help but bring up, needing confirmation of her mother's position, "you seem pretty okay with me having these feeling for another woman."

"Of course. People are people, regardless of gender." Janet wrapped her arm around her shoulder in a side hug. "We're all just stardust, trying to make connections in this universe. And evidently you've found yours."

She couldn't believe how lucky she was to have Janet Van Dyne as her mother, and that the woman was back in her life, once again. Hope focused on her, looking upon her beautiful face as she smiled, "I love you."

"Oh, I love you too, Jellybean." Janet then pulled her daughter closer to her while wrapping her other arm around her, careful of her bruised back, where Hope was quick to envelope her mom as she hugged her back.

Just then the elevator pinged open and out walked Natasha and Clint. "Hey, Hope," Natasha smirked at her before looking to Janet, "Mrs. Van Dyne," she bowed her head in acknowledgement as they both walked over to them.

"Hi," Hope smiled at the two after her and her mother had let go of each other.

"So, Clint and I were talking, and we were wondering if we should try to convince Steve to let us have a hangout and chill day today in the penthouse, instead of starting back up with a training session."

"Yeah, we were thinking we could all use a break together as a team," Clint added.

"Sounds good to me." Hope welcomed the idea. "But I do have physio this afternoon."

"Okay, we'll make sure to do it beforehand then." Natasha started walking backwards towards the buffet table, that the kitchen staff were now putting hot food out on. "But not too early. Gotta make sure Sleepyhead has an opportunity to stop by," Natasha winked at her before turning away.

"Who's Sleepyhead?" Clint asked as he followed her to the food spread.

"No one. Nevermind," Hope heard Natasha respond.

"Wait," Janet looked to Hope, "Does she know--"

"Yes," Hope interrupted her question before shoving a spoonful of cereal into her mouth, not wanting to admit to her mother that Natasha had caught them making out in the control room last night.

"Okay, I won't ask," Janet chuckled at her as Hope had continued to eat while not looking to her.

Hope then smirked to herself, excited to spend time relaxing with the team that day, and even more so, she was excited to spend time with Maria, the woman of her dreams.


	15. Fifteenth

That morning Hope had said farewell to Princess Shuri, before she and Okoye had left to go back home, where she'd again thanked her immensely for repairing her spine. Not too long later she'd also said goodbye to her parents who were heading back to San Francisco. She'd asked for her mother's discretion about Hope's relationship with Maria in regards to her father; not wanting that subject breached with him quite yet, knowing that he would not likely take it well. She'd decided to save that conversation for a later date, with her being the one to tell him.

It was nearly ten in the morning, the time that the Avengers had decided to meet up at, when Hope had started to make her way to the penthouse. She'd had an opportunity already that morning to return to her room to put on fresh clothing; still sticking with a pair of yoga pants, for that they didn't bother her bruised back, along with a casual grey button up. She'd also tried a french braid, happy with how well it'd covered her shaven patch.

When Hope had reached the top floor she'd found only Scott there, already sitting on one of the sofas, on a video call with Cassie.

Scott turned to the sound of her arrival where he was quick to smile before talking back into his phone, "Oh, look who just walked in," he turned his phone so that his daughter could see her.

"Hope!" The girl shouted. "Daddy said you got hurt being a hero, but now you're okay. You are okay, right?"

Hope smiled, as she approached from the backside of the couch. "Yeah. I'm fine. Thanks for asking."

"So, you're still coming to my school play next week?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world." The girl beamed at her with excitement.

They then heard Maggie calling her daughter in the background through the phone. "Cass, Julia's here!" She was referring to the girl's best friend who was practically at her house every Saturday.

"Oh, I gotta go!" The girl grinned. "Bye, Hope. Bye, Daddy! See you soon when you get back!"

Scott turned the phone back towards himself as he blew her a kiss, "Bye, Peanut." The girl waved before abruptly hanging up, obviously excited to rush off to her friend.

"So," Scott turned in his seat to look up at Hope.

"So." She repeated

He smiled, "How did it go yesterday?"

"You don't have to…" Hope turned her body to sit on the back of the sofa. "I mean," she chewed her lip in conflict, dropping her head, "we don't have to talk about it." She felt way too guilty to show him just how happy she felt with Maria.

"No. It's okay," he said encouragingly, while resting his arms on the back of the couch next to her.

She shifted awkwardly, "It went…" she searched for a word that didn't come across as too positive, but yet wasn't completely a lie either, "fine," she'd finally said.

"Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Hide your feeling to protect mine." He gently nudged her hip with his elbow just as the elevator doors pinged open, with Natasha, Clint, Steve, Tony, and Sam walking out. "Really, you can tell me the truth. I can handle it," his voice dropped a little as the gang moved closer towards them as they entered the room.

"You can handle what?" Tony seemingly overheard him as he asked. "Her telling you the truth about how your butt looks in your Ant-Man suit?"

"Wait, how does my butt look?" Scott straightened his body in fear. He then looked to Hope as he asked her in horror, "Is it bad?"

"Don't worry," Tony waved his hand as he walked off towards the bar, "a flat ass kinda suits you, Lang." He then slightly raised the volume of his voice, "hey, Jarvis, playParty Mix Four," he instructed the tower's computer.

"StartingParty Mix Four,Sir," the British voice came from the speakers in the room before soft jazz music began to play.

"Tony, I told you to leave Scott's rear end well enough alone," Sam scolded him as he sat on the sofa across from them, with Natasha, Clint, and Steve, trailing over with him. "Not everyone has Cap's ass."

"Why do so many of our conversations seem to come around to mentioning my butt?" Steve sighed.

Natasha squeezed the Captain's face, as she jokingly spoke to him like he was an infant, while shaking his head, "'cause it's just such a damn cute butt." She then released him, only to yank him down to sit next to her on the third sofa, perpendicular to Hope and Scott, as Clint took the seat next to Sam.

"My butt looks flat and you've neglected to tell me this whole time?" Scott gawked at Hope.

"Sorry. Should we put some butt pads in your suit for you?" She suggested to her partner with a smirk.

"Well that would have been a great idea, but we can't do it now with everyone knowing!" He humorously waved his hands towards the rest of the Avengers.

The gang instantly started making fun of Scott and his desire for a padded rear end, when Hope had tuned them out at the sight of Maria entering the room from the stairwell. She looked well rested as she stepped out onto the floor, wearing a black pantsuit with her hair twisted up. When she caught Hope's gaze, her face split into a heart melting smile which had the ability to make Hope weak in the knees. Luckily, she was resting against the sofa, or she would have been a mess sprawled out on the floor.

"Go." She heard Scott mutter in a low tone.

"What?" Hope looked to him.

"You've got functioning legs now," he said in a smile which, this time, actually seemed genuine. "Go." He used his head to gesture towards Maria.

Hope couldn't help but smile at him, as she could have almost cried at just how supportive he was being towards her. She nodded at him before she pushed herself up and made her way over to her.

"Hey," Maria beamed at her as she approached.

"Hi," Hope had to hold herself back from just lunging at her; wanting to kiss her beautiful smile.

"So, how are you feeling? I noticed your lack of hobble just now."

"Oh yeah, I'm practically hobble free," Hope chuckled.

"Good," Maria said, her eye twinkling.

"So, how was your sleep?"

"Pretty fantastic," she nodded before eyeing her playfully, "but I did miss my pillow. It got up and left me during the early morning."

Hope sucked her bottom lip into her mouth as she took a step closer to her. "Maybe it'll show up again tonight," she shrugged teasingly where Maria bit down a grin in response.

"So?" Hope, startled by a voice that had abruptly come from behind her, turned to find Steve who'd suddenly appeared next to her. "I do believe we were in the middle of a game of pool. Interested in continuing?" He asked as if he truly had no idea in what they'd just been previously discussing.

Hope looked back to Maria who was smirking as she said, "What do you think? Want to wipe the floor with his corps?"

Hope stuttered for a moment, "I, ah-- my motor skills are not great right now." She worried about messing up Maria's game.

"So what you're saying is, at this moment you and Steve are at the same skill level?" She shrugged her shoulders, "because this might be the ideal time to play then. We'll finally be giving him a fighting chance."

"Man, your trash talk is brutal," Steve muttered.

Hope smirked towards Steve's reaction as Maria's comment gave her the confidence to attempt a Captain America destruction. She nodded, looking back at Maria, "okay. Let's do it."

"Excellent." Steve sounded delighted that they'd agreed to continuing their game. "I'll grab us all some drinks before we begin. Hope, what would you like?"

"Do you guys have club soda?"

"Yes. Would you like it on ice?" He asked while he backed away towards the bar.

"Sure. Thanks."

"Diet Dr. Pepper?" He pointed to Maria.

She nodded, "and leave it in the can."

"Yes I know," he said while turning away.

Maria then dropped her head like she had a new found fascination with her shoes, as she seemed to be building up courage before lifting her gaze to Hope. "I wanted to apologise to you," her tone came out seriously.

Hope shook her head in uttar bafflement, "for what?" She couldn't, for the life of her, figure out what she was talking about.

"Last night. I kind of had a breakdown there. That was so not like me." Maria shook her head like she were ashamed of her behaviour. "Like there were tears and everything. I don't cry. That's not a thing that I do."

Hope couldn't believe the ridiculousness that was coming out of Maria's mouth. She had absolutely nothing to be sorry or shameful for. "Okay, you're not allowed to apologise to me about crying," She spoke sternly yet lovingly, "Because I was literally a weeping mess when you returned my dad's lab to me." She thought back to their first intimate moment, when Hope had been the one crying into their kiss. "So it's only fair that it's your turn to lose it in front of me," she smiled at her before asking, "okay?" Hope eyed her for a moment where she soon saw the corners of Maria's mouth curling up into a soft smile.

"Okay," Maria nodded.

Steve then walked up to them, passing Maria her can of pop and Hope her sparkling water in a glass. "So," he nodded to the commander, "it's still your turn, yes?"

"Yeah," Maria confirmed as she cracked open her can before heading over to the pool table, fixing her eyes onto the game in play. "Kay, now I have to remind myself as to what the hell I had planned again." She took a sip of her drink, holding it in her mouth for a moment before swallowing. "Oh yeah," she nodded to herself, "red ball." She then went to put her drink on a nearby table before grabbing a pool cue; quickly chalking its tip.

Hope took a sip of her drink before placing it next to the can of Dr. Pepper just as Maria reached out to her. Wordlessly, Hope took her hand with a smirk, and allowed Maria to gently pull her to the edge of the table. "Okay," Maria started to explain while failing to let go of Hope's hand, which was somewhat distracting to the new Avenger. "We're going to bounce the cue ball off the bumper, around his yellow ball, and hit it into our red ball, sinking it into the side pocket there," she pointed with the stick.

"Okay, I'll give it a try," she said with wavering faith in her abilities.

Maria softly squeezed her hand before letting go, where she then passed the cue stick to her. Then, ever so carefully, she guided Hope over a little to the right; positioning her in a more ideal spot. Hope then independently bent over the table, lining up the shot before Maria slowly and gently lowered herself to Hope, making contact with her upper back; with her chin resting on top of her shoulder, just like she'd done before the last time they'd played. Maria slid her hands around Hope's body, to rest them on top of her own, which were gripping the stick. "Okay, I'm going to mark the bumper again," Maria pushed their hands to bring the stick to the wall, chalking it so Hope would know exactly where to aim, when Maria had hissed; quickly retracting her arm.

"Your shoulder?" Hope asked empathetically as she turned her head to her in concern.

"Yeah, I keep forgetting about it."

"Careful," Steve cautioned from the other side of the table, "Don't pull a stitch out."

"I won't. I'm fine." Maria then lined up the shot for Hope where the woman underneath had to bite down on a smile, enjoying Maria's dominating contact once again. "This looks about right," Maria turned to speak softly into the side of Hope's face, the heated air of her breath falling onto her cheek; sending a warm rush through Hope's body. "You feel like you got this?"

"Theoretically."

Maria chuckled while letting go of Hope's grip where she then stepped back from her. Hope then took a deep breath before sliding her cue stick to take the shot, which then abruptly jolted upwards, tipped the right side of the cue ball with the edge of the stick, barely moving it on the table as it scratched their shot.

"What the hell?" Hope angrily stood upright, aggressively gesturing to the cue ball, "I was literally aiming to shoot left and my stupid messed up brain made my hands jerk in the complete opposite direction," she growled; hating her body for failing her.

"Okay, Steve," Maria addressed him calmly, "I yield. You win." She then took the pool stick out of Hope's grip, tossing it on the table; knocking pool balls in the process, before taking Hope's hand in her own. "Come on, let's dance," She smiled at her encouragingly. "You don't have to aim while dancing."

"Wait." Steve said, "you didn't have to do that. We could've taken a rain check and continued at a later date."

"No, it's fine." Maria said while pulling Hope to the empty space on the floor next to one of the speakers by the window. "Congrats, you finally beat me."

"This feels like a cheap win!" he called out to her, "I don't like it!"

"Oh well," she practically shouted over her shoulder right before she spun Hope around to face her, placing her hand gently on her hip, then holding up their already clasped hands out to the side. Hope then followed her lead as she rested her free hand on top of Maria's good shoulder, welcoming the activity change, where the commander had pushed her backwards in a slow dance.

Hope could somewhat hear Tony asking Steve about their pool game from the other side of the room, but she was too preoccupied to care, as she speedily shut them out while her full attention fell onto Maria.

She then sighed in embarrassment before she said in earnest, "I'm sorry for ruining your winning streak, and for my shitty attitude. I know I'm pathetically overreacting to that shot. It's just I'm not used to my body betraying me like that."

"For one, I don't care about the game, and two, you're not pathetically overreacting." Maria responded softly.

"No, I am." Hope admitted, "Jane already told me I'd have this recovery period, and it shouldn't last long." She growled, "Yet here I am, just all frustrated!"

"Then be frustrated. You're allowed to be frustrated."

"Okay, good because I am," she practically pouted.

Maria had then stopped leading her in dance, as she pulled Hope securely into her grasp; wrapping her arms around her upper back while holding her head in her hand; pressing it to her neck as she rested her cheek atop it. Hope sighed, completely melting into her body as she closed her eyes, while hugging her arms around Maria's lower back. She'd forgotten both her surroundings and her worries as she relaxed into Maria's supportive embrace while listening to the calming music emanating next to them. "Okay," Hope contently murmured into Maria's chest, "I'm kind of no longer frustrated now."

Maria chuckled into the top of her head, "good," which made Hope smile in response.

"Whoa hey, Scott!" Hope heard Tony call out quite loudly. "You should keep an eye on Maria over there. Looks like she's trying to steal your girl." She quickly opened her eyes and turned her head to see Tony walking to the sofas, with a fresh drink in hand, addressing her partner who was still in his same seat.

Hope's heart instantly began to pound, her nerves now getting a hold of her. She was scared as to how this was all about to shake down; still very concerned about Scott's feelings.

"Oh, it's cool," Scott shrugged nonchalantly, to Hope's surprise, "that ship has already sailed."

"Huh?" Tony asked for clarification as he sat down on the armrest of the couch opposite him, where Hope had observed the rest of the gang now focusing in on the exchange, as well as, taking notice to both her and Maria embracing.

"She already stole her," Scott flicked his hand casually before his face scrunched. "Well, technically," he continued as if he were thinking out loud, "she didn't steal her at all, it was Hope who'd decided to replace me with a younger hotter model," he said in a light-hearted way.

Tony shook his head, "Typical Playboy move from a child who's financially benefiting from father's billion dollar tech company," he then nodded, "I know it all too well. Practically invented it myself."

"Hey," Maria spoke up, "I saw my shot at landing my very own sugar daddy, and I took it!"

"Oh my god!" Hope ripped her head back to look at Maria who was wearing a proud smirk.

"Ah, way to rub it in my face," Scott whined dramatically, "I was so close to that sweet Pym Tech moola."

"You two are ridiculous," Hope whipped her head back and forth between the two, yet couldn't help but beam at how playful they were being with each other.

"Yeah, but because of what she did to you, I'm now worried that when I get a little older, she'll dump me too for somebody younger," Maria addressed Scott, while completing ignoring the woman in her arms.

"Probably will," Scott nodded, "I mean, just look at her track record."

"What track record?" Hope scoffed, suppressing a grin, "and what exactly is it that makes you two think that either of you have ever or will ever get access to my money?"

"Oh," Maria scrunched her face as she looked to Hope, "I mean, if that's the case, and there's no green here, I guess we should just call it now." Maria then turned her attention back to the centre of the room, "Scott, want her back?"

"Nah," he said teasingly, "I think I'm good. A locked up well is as useful as a dry one."

"I hate you both so much right now," Hope muttered.

"Hey," Scott's eyes lit up, as he completely disregarded Hope's last statement while locking his gaze onto Maria's. He then pointed back and forth between the two of them, "We should get married instead!"

"What?" Hope couldn't help but laugh out, not able to conceal her happy mood towards their ridiculousness, as they were getting along far too well. "That doesn't even make sense."

"You know," Maria addressed her, "it might be a sexless marriage, but it'll be worth it for all of the movie marathon that we'll get to have."

"Oh, and all the video games that we'll get to play," Scott piped up. "Please tell me that you play video games?"

"Sometimes when I need to unwind I come up here in the middle of the night and playRock Band. Does that count?"

"Are you kidding me? I'm all about the drums in that game!"

"I always play guitar."

Scott jumped to his feet with excitement, "We should start a band!"

"Yes," Maria slid her hands to Hope's shoulders, where she nudged her away a bit. "Wanna play now?"

"Let's do it!" Scott enthusiastically agreed, as Maria straight up walked away from Hope, abandoning her, as she made her way to the end of the room, opposite the bar, and flicked a switch on the wall that made a screen drop from the ceiling.

Hope threw her hands up in bewilderment as she muttered, "literally what is happening here?"

"Yeah," Steve spoke up from behind the sofa that Sam and Clint were sitting on, "I'm confused too."

"Me, three," Clint raised his hand.

"So," Sam joined in, uncertainty written all over his face, "Maria and Hopearedating?"

"Not anymore, I clearly just stole Maria away from her." Scott bore a lopsided smile. "Seduction through video based entertainment." he threw his hands on top of his hips as he nodded, "I would say it works every time, but this is literally the first that it's ever panned out for me."

Hope had to hold back a laugh as she called out in fake anger, "you guys will never last!" as she walked around to the couches, sitting down on the empty sofa that Scott had just vacated from.

"You mean because of our gold digging tendencies?" Scott looked to her before going to Maria, who was dragging out the drumset that was housed inside a large cupboard. "She kind of has a point." He helped her place the equipment in front of the screen. "we need a rich person to leech off of."

"Don't worry," Maria turned to retrieve a guitar, "I've been playing a long game with Pepper Pots for years now. She can be our sugar daddy."

"Ooh. Stark money!" He grinned as she passed him his drum sticks, before turning on the game that had already been loaded in the system.

"Damnit, Maria," Tony sighed. "Stop trying to romance my girlfriend. It's super annoying because I know she likes you better than me."

Hope caught a mischievous smile shared between the two, where Scott had given Maria a thumbs up, making Hope chuckle under her breath at them. She was just so utterly ecstatic that these two people, who were both so important to her, were getting along so well, even if it was at her expense.

After a short amount of time the two were set up with their instruments, Scott sitting at his drum kit and Maria with a guitar in hand, strap awkwardly halfway off her shoulder due to her injury, as they were going through the song list, with the room music already turned off.

They settled on'We Will Rock You'byQueenwhere they both skillfully played, only once during a difficult guitar solo did Maria trip up, where Scott had encouraged her, which seemingly helped, where she had pulled through it.

Once the song had ended, the screen had showed their scores. Maria had received eighty-seven percent and Scott had gotten full marks. "You got one hundred percent?" Maria turned to him with a smile of awe, "How the hell did you manage that?"

"Well, while you were busy romancing Hope, I was home studying the drums. Clearly one was better time spent."

"Clear as a perfect score sprawled across a T.V. screen!" She pointed to the mentioned presentation, where she flickered her eyes to Hope; flashing her a playful smile.

"You guys are really testing me here," Hope warned them.

Then Maria's gaze moved upright as she scoffed, "unbelievable." Her attention now over towards the elevator.

"Hey, you guys are playingRock Band?" An unfamiliar man's voice was heard by Hope, as she turned to see who it was coming from.

"Thor!" Tony smiled at the Asgardian who'd just entered the room.

"Hey buddy, what brings you here?" Steve walked over to great him.

"What the hell," Maria barked at the new arrival as she took off her guitar, placing it down on the ground, while not breaking eye contact with him. "Fury's been trying to contact you for months."

"Did he send a raven?" Maria's jaw clenched as she crossed her arms. "Look at her scary face." Thor addresses the room. "She hates it when I ask her that." He then looked back to her. "My apologies. I truly did just received his message, that is why I am here now." He then looked about the room, "Where is he?"

"Not here. And he doesn't need you anymore," she sighed, "you're too late, we dealt with it another way."

"Excellent, then we can drink and playRock Band!" He approached her as he smiled, "and you're not allowed to be angry with me, because I found you the perfect maden during my absence, and I told her all about you too."

Maria's mood seemed to shift as she tilted her head in intrigue, "Oh yeah?" She then briefly looked to Hope again, smirking before focusing back to Thor.

"Yes," he said with excitement, "She is a beautiful Valkyrie. You two would be perfect for eachother, and she seemed rather interested when I described you to her."

"Oh she sounds promising." Maria smiled before leaning in as she asked in fake concern, "but is she greedy though? Like does she horde her wealth?"

Hope couldn't take it any longer as she got up from her spot and hurried over to her. "I swear to god, Maria!" She growled before wrapping her arms around her, as she purposefully, yet gently, pushed her fingers into her sore arm.

"Ow!" Maria cried out with a laugh, "that was my bullet wound." She then turned in Hope's grasp as she too wrapped her arms around her.

"Serves you right," Hope stared into her eyes playfully, as their foreheads had nearly touched.

"Hold on." Thor looked to them in absolute delight, "Is this your--?" He pointed to Hope, "Have you finally found somebody?" He looked at Maria with the most pride Hope had ever seen in a person.

Maria chuckled at him before she introduced the two, "This is Hope Van Dyne. Hope, this big Golden Retriever here is Thor."

"Wait. You're The Wasp?" His face split into a grin, "I've heard that you're like Ant-Man but way cooler! Like you have blasters and organic wings on your suit so you can both shoot and fly!"

Scott then bounded to his feet as he added from behind them, "I mean, I can grow really big and she can't, so let's not totally forget about that." He nodded with a slightly sheepish smile, like he were completely captivated by the Norse god in front of them.

"Ah," Thor stepped to him, clapping his hand jovely on top of his shoulder, "you must be Scott Lang, I presume," he smiled as the smaller man nearly lost his balance under the god's strong grasp.

"Yes," Scott looked to him in awe, "and what a privilege it is to meet you."

Thor shook his body like he were shaking his hand before he asked, "so you play drums?" he let go of him to point at the sticks in his hand.

"Ah yeah."

"Wonderful! Would you do me the pleasure and play a song with me? I just love this game."

Scott brought his hand to his heart, "It would be my honour," he almost cried.

"Good. I am partial to the songMMMbopby the greatest Midgard artists known asHanson."

"You really know your Earth music because I couldn't agree with you more.Hansontruly is the greatest," Scott said sincerely.

Maria had then guided Hope to sit down with her, where she'd previously been, as Thor grabbed up the guitar to play his favourite teen-bop song with Scott.

Maria pulled her legs up to sit with them tucked underneath her butt, while Hope had crossed her one leg over the other, where Maria had taken a hold of her thigh, pulling it so her leg practically crossed over Maria's lap in the process. Their arms were already interlocked with each other as their body's were tightly pressed up against the others.

"So," Steve looked over to them like he were still trying to understand, "you two knew each other already?"

"Yeah," Maria nodded.

He shook his head while staring at Maria, "I should have realised." Hope wasn't quite sure what he'd meant by that, or why he should have known, but she assumed the remark wasn't meant for her.

"Wait, when did you two meet then?" Sam asked.

"Few months ago."

"Maria was stalking me," Hope added onto the commander's answer.

Maria scoffed, "being under surveillance is not stalking."

"Yeah?" Hope eyed her with a smile, "and what's the difference?"

"A paycheque," Maria nodded with inflated confidence.

"You were checking in on their quantum bridge." Tony had figured it out where he then began to complain, "and you didn't even invite me? I could've helped find Auntie Janet."

Hope then informed him, "technically you did help."

His eyes grew in realisation as he looked to Maria, "That part you tricked me to make for you, and then threatened me not to ask any questions about," he nodded as if the pieces were all falling into place, "Oh," he nodded, "I know exactly what that was needed for now," he said as if he could pinpoint the specific location of the component in the bridge, and tell you its precise function in the system.

"I was thinking of the arc reactor," Hope said, whipping her head to Maria. "You got him to make that other part for us too?"

"You gave her one of my arc reactors?" Tony questioned her

"Yes and yes," Maria responded to both of their queries.

"Good," Tony simply said.

Hope shrugged, "I'm not mad."

"Wait, how did you get one of my reactors?" He clearly had just thought over the situation a little more thoroughly.

"I walked into your lab and took one."

"Huh. I feel like I should be worried by your entitled actions and complete lack of boundaries, but I'm not at all for some reason."

"She's exhibiting behaviours similar to your own, that's why," Sam therorised.

"Ah, my narcissism is putting me in a place of vulnerability yet again."

"Technically, I did ask Pepper, after the fact, if it was alright that I took one," Maria shrugged.

"And?" Tony seemed curious as to how his girlfriend had responded.

"She told me next time I should take five. Then proceeded to thank me for her birthday evening that I planned for the two of you."

"Damn, I knew she'd figure that one out. It was too good and she could tell."

"Wow," Hope eyed her, "you really are playing the long game with her."

"Well," Tony explained, "she did use the birthday celebration to manipulate me to make parts for you. So is she really?"

"No I am," Maria smirked. "Two birds," She put up two fingers, "one stone," She lowered her middle finger," Where Hope was quick to sloppily snatch her index finger; squeezing it tightly. "Gotta play the field," Maria giggled out towards the other woman's actions, "don't hate the player hate the game!" She practically screamed while Hope yanked her finger, while pulling Maria across her lap, where she then proceeded to put her elbows down to trap Maria in place.

"Is your shoulder being squished?" Hope asked Maria, making sure she wasn't hurting her.

"No," Maria huffed from her spot where she was pinned.

"Good."

"You know what," Clint finally spoke up, "I'm still not quite sure how this all came about. But I like that you're somehow getting away with pushing Maria around, because if any of us would try that," he pointed to Maria trapped beneath her, "we'd be dead."

"Oh, she's gonna be dead," Maria growled, yet did nothing in trying to get out of her hold.

Just then the guys had finished up playing their song. "A hundred each!" Thor cheered at their perfect scores. "Man of Ant we have brought honour upon the name ofHansonthis day!"

"Wow, Thor beat your guitar score by a lot," Hope teased Maria.

"He changed the difficulty fromExperttoHard, I saw him." Maria then looked to her. "Can I please get up now?"

"I don't know, are you done causing me grief?"

Maria looked through slitted eyes, studying her face for a moment before saying in a tentative tone, "For now."

Hope bit down a smile as she moved her elbows, where she then proceeded to help her back up into a sitting position.

"Commander Hill," Jarvis's voice came through the room's speakers. "Director Tarr is on the line, requesting to speak with you."

"Okay, I'll take it down in Controls," Maria then stood up, rather quickly, like the call was important.

"M.I.6?" Natasha asked, "Is this about Paris?"

"Possibly, but I suspect it's something else."

"Something else like what?" She followed up.

"Something classified."

"Fury and Maria are keeping secrets from the children again," Tony interjected.

As Maria passed Thor, she wordlessly eased the guitar out of his hand, quickly changing his difficulty toExpertbefore handing it back to him. "Now watch him play," Maria looked to Hope with a smirk before she made her way to the elevator.

Hope then noticed Natasha and Clint signing a conversation, while darting their eyes at Maria, like they were trying to figure out what she was not telling them.

Hope then sighed, realising that Maria really was constantly preoccupied with her job; not that she would let that cloud over the enjoyable time that they were able to share just then. Besides, even if Maria didn't make it back to their group hangout, Hope would still have the opportunity to see her that evening. Maria did say that she wanted her pillow after all.

Before Maria disappeared inside the elevator, she turned and smiled towards Hope as she mouthed, "See you later," with a winked, which made Hope bite down a giggle, as Maria had a way of making her feel like a giddy teenager.

"Who's going to sing for our band?" Thor's boisterous question brought her thoughts back to the party as she turned to see him holding up a microphone, that he'd just gotten from the cupboard.

"Go on, Steve," Natasha slapped the Captain's leg.

Steve sighed, "Alright, alright," yet Hope caught the smile on his face as he walked over to the mic. Where they proceeded to play songs, switching off so that everyone had a chance if they'd wanted one.

It ended up being an enjoyable time, even though Hope would have preferred it if Maria had stopped by again, which she didn't end up doing. But she still had a blast, especially with Thor, who was like a fun jock with lots of positive energy. It had been so long since Hope had been part of a group of friends. She had been isolated for many years, beginning after she'd taken over Pym Tech, that she'd forgotten what it was like to be a part of something, and with people who she actually liked and got along with. Hope had felt as if she'd found her extended family which brought her joy.

* * *

Maria had spent the rest of the morning and part of the early afternoon in calls with M.I.6, Fury, Agent Sharon Carter, and a contact that she had with the C.I.A. all in regards to A.I.M. and their activities. Something was afoot with that organisation and she, along with others, had feared it was brewing into something big.

Her and Fury had concluded that it would be best if she got out into the field to start mingling with her informants; to shake some trees and see what falls out.

It was the early afternoon when she'd readied herself to hit the road. She was currently standing in the Avengers Tower elevator where she was in casual clothing: jeans, a plain white t-shirt, with a leather jacket that was flung over her shoulder. She held a black duffle bag in her hand, with her hair now down and her sidearm strapped to her belt.

Stopping at the gym floor, Maria stepped out, placing her bag and jacket down by the entrance as she slowly walked over to the sight of where Hope was sitting at a weight machine, as she was in the middle of doing repetitions. Both Scott and Cheryl Leeman, the Avenger's go-to physiotherapist, were standing over her as they monitored her movements.

Hope caught Maria's entrance almost instantly as she stopped her leg reps while tracking her movement, clearly noticing her bag and change in appearance.

"Hey, Cheryl," Scott looked to the physiotherapist, "You think you could show me that machine over there now," he pointed way off to the other side of the room. "Give Hope a small break."

"Sure," she nodded, already familiarised with being excused for private conversation while working contractually for the agency. The two then wandered off to leave Hope alone as Maria reached her location.

Hope removed her feet off of the weights that she'd just been pushing up a track, swiveling in her seat as she rested her runners on the ground. Maria took note of how many pounds she was repping; in awe of just how strong she was, before focusing back on the woman.

"You're leaving," Hope looked to the bag and jacket that were resting by the elevator, before looking to her.

Maria locked onto her gaze as she shook her head, "I'm sorry." She felt this weight sitting on her chest, hating to leave her.

"No, it's okay," Hope reached out to take her hand, pulling her down into her lap, where Maria straddled her. "I already agreed to this part," Hope said as she slid her hands around her lower back. Maria sighed as she dropped her forehead to Hope's; bringing her hands to her gorgeously flushed face as she ran her thumb over Hope's beautiful mouth. "You're going to call me when you're out there, right?" Hope spoke into the other woman's thumb.

"Absolutely."

"You have my new phone number?"

"4-1-5-6-6-3-72-18," Maria rattled off her number, having memorised it the second her eyes read it off of her file when her and Scott submitted their applications to join the Avengers.

Hope's face split into a grin before she gently bit Maria's thumb, holding it gingerly between her teeth. "And I'll stop by your place the moment I get a chance," Maria hummed before she pulled her thumb free from her mouth only to replace it with her lips. Hope was quick to position her tongue to run its tip over the inside of Maria's teeth, which sent all of the commander's nerves ablaze. "I'm going to fucking devour you the next time I see you," Maria muttered into their kiss which resulted in Hope grabbing her ass; pulling her in closer before she started kneading at her butt through her jeans, with the same rhythm that her tongue was flicking inside of Maria's mouth.

The kiss didn't last terribly long, for that Maria couldn't handle its intensity. If she didn't break away from Hope's intoxicating touch then she'd never leave. "Okay," Maria gasped; pulling away from Hope's mouth, "I have to go."

"Okay," Hope smiled, removing her hands off of her bum while bringing one to her face, where she was quick to take a hold of her chin. "But I swear to god," she shook her head in her grasp while she warned her, "if you try to romance any other women while you're gone, I will murder you."

Maria chuckled, the thought of wanting to be with anybody else when she already had the most beautiful woman in the world, seemed utterly asinine. "There are no other women." Maria removed the hand on her chin, only to seize it in her own; threading their fingers together, "Just you."

Hope grinned where she pulled Maria back to her, kissing her fiercely before abruptly pushing her away, "Okay, go." She lifted the woman up off of her with her incredible strength, as she then continued to shove her away playfully.

"I'm going," Maria shot back at her. "stop pushing me," she grinned; swatting Hope's hands off as she backed away.

Maria huffed at her before turning to leave when Hope had called out, "Goodbye, Maria!"

The commander beamed as she finished their ritual farewell that seemed to have organically developed over their relationship. "Goodbye, Hope."

Once she'd reached the elevator she heard her calling out from her spot, "By the way, Thor scored an eighty-nine onExpert. So he still beat you by eleven percent on an equal playing ground!"

Maria dramatically growled out loud as she scooped up her bag and jacket before disappearing inside the elevator, where she could hear Hope laughing at her as the doors closed behind her. Maria then chuckled to herself as the lift brought her down to the parkade, where her vehicle awaited her to take her away from Hope, but hopefully not away for too long.


	16. Sixteenth

Hope aimed up her shot, a little hesitant from all her previous trials, but still feeling more confident than before. She squeezed the trigger of her particle blaster and hit the lab rat that was in front of her on top of the lab table. The white rodent instantly grew to the size of a German Shepherd. She stared at it where it peered back, she then cocked her head as if she were waiting for it to literally blow up in her face, but it did not. Hope's face then split into a grin as she turned to her dad who was standing right beside her. "It worked!" she cheered as she lunged at him; giving him a hug where he instantly reciprocated it.

He soon pulled her back, keeping his hands on her shoulders, "Now try shrinking him back," he smiled in excitement.

She nodded before she turned and did as instructed, where the rat quickly shrank back down to size, with one blast of her weapon.

Hope was ecstatic, they had been tinkering with her blasters for nearly two weeks, having no luck, when they'd finally had enough, and decided to start from scratch, building a completely new one.

She actually had a pleasant time engineering the tech with her dad. They had fallen back into their previous rhythm like they had when they were building the quantum bridge together. They actually had a great working relationship, as long as they stayed focused on the project at hand. It was only when they'd deviate onto sensitive personal matters, did they find trouble. That had been the very reason why Hope had been avoiding telling him about her and Maria.

She kept insisting to herself that she was waiting for just the right moment to bring it up, but it had become abundantly clear that she was just being a chicken, since it'd been three weeks since her and Scott had gotten back from New York, and she had yet to even try to bring it up.

Though, it didn't help that Hope was still waiting on Maria to contact her. The Commander had promised to call, but Hope had yet to hear from her, which she tried desperately not to think about, for It made her feel uneasy. She didn't know if Maria was okay or not. Something bad may have happened to her. Or possibly, she was totally fine but, for some reason, had had a change of heart and didn't care enough to reach out to her.

She didn't want to bethat girl, the one who was paranoid that her significant other didn't truly care for her, but the irrational fear was still there, deep in the back of her mind, trying to push itself forward into her forethoughts. The two, afterall, never did have 'the official talk'to discuss their relationship status. However, Maria did assure her that there were no other women in her life, that it was just her, but even then, she needed some reassurance. She didn't think Maria was lying to her or anything, it was just that their relationship was so new and she missed her so much, that her brain was involuntarily cycling through various worst case scenarios in reaction to Hope's fear, the fear that she would lose the woman she'd loved.

"Hey, guys, I heard happy cheering," Scott approached them in their lab, gesturing to the blaster, "Did you finally get it to work?" Hope smiled at him as she turned and shot the rat, shrinking him down to the size of a thimble. "Sweet!"

"What brings you by?" Hope asked while she removed her blaster from her wrist, where her dad was quick to take it from her, wanting to start fashioning its plating.

"Oh, I'm on my way to a new client," he referenced his, and his best friend Luis's, security company, "but Cassie gave me these this afternoon and insisted that I deliver them today." He pulled out a couple cards from his bag, looking at them before he handed one to Hank and the other to Hope.

Hope looked down, chuckling at the birthday party invitation with Captain America on it. She opened the card, where it read: "I'd besuperexcited for you to attend my 9th birthday party," but what had really struck her interest was Cassie's writing at the bottom, that had simply said, "Hope Maria." She had to bite down a smile, she'd never seen their names together like that; it had sent a tingling sensation up her neck.

Just then her phone started to ring. She grabbed it out of her pant pocket, seeing an unknown number on display. "Hello?" She answered it.

"Hey," came a familiar voice, "It's me."

Hope beamed as she nearly cried, "Maria." It was like Cassie's card had somehow summoned the other woman. "Ah," Hope briefly glanced up at both Hank and Scott who were looking at her. "just give me a second, kay?" She muttered into the phone before she swiftly moved to the end of the room, entering the stairwell, where she sat down on the landing with her feet resting on a lower step. "Okay, hi," she smiled, while pulling Cassie's card into her lap.

"Hi." She could hear the warmth coming from the other woman's voice. "I'm sorry it took so long to call, this has kind of been the first opportunity I've had, believe it or not."

In hearing her words, all of Hope's fears that Maria had been purposely avoiding her had dissipated. "It's okay. I get it." Hope then dropped her head to the side, resting it against the wall, before she'd asked, "So how are you?"

"Honestly, a lot better now that I'm talking to you." Hope felt her cheeks warm in response to the woman's answer.

"Are you not having fun out there?" She asked light-heartedly.

"Fun is definitely not the word I'd use, no," Maria sighed, sounding tired.

Hope responded a little more seriously, "I guess you can't tell me where you are or what you're up to."

"No," she said softly, "but can you tell me things about yourself? Like how is your recovery coming along?"

Hope smirked, "I successfully took Scott down for the first time, while sparring last week. And he has yet to land a hit since. So I'd say I'm pretty much back to normal."

"Good, I'm so glad to hear." Maria sounded like she was talking through a smile, which made Hope grin.

"Yeah," Hope continued, "now the only thing that I'm recovering from is my goofy hair. It's truly fantastic at the moment." Hope said sarcastically. "That patch of hair is just at the right length that it's sticking upright. Scott has called it my mini putting green, and if I don't conceal it properly, he very annoyingly pokes at it."

Maria giggled, "I would very much like to see that."

"What, see my hair? Or Scott poking at my hair?" Hope chuckled

"Both."

"Well if you hurry up out there, then you can."

"Trust me," Maria sighed, "I'm working on it."

"Good," Hope bit her lip, a happy warmth traveling through her body.

"Tell me what else you've been up to."

"Well, my dad and I managed to make a new blaster. Which means, as of now, I can successfully manipulate organic structures," She said proudly. "So the next time you decide to jump out of an exploding helicopter, I'll be able to shrink you down before catching you."

"You're saying that you'll be able to fly me to safety without having to act as my crash pad again?" Maria teased.

Hope giggled, "pretty much, yeah."

"That would definitely be preferable, 'cause you suck to land on top of, you're definitely not squishy enough," she could hear Maria holding back a laugh, but Hope didn't have her strength as she audibly chuckled. "Hey, speaking of your blasters, you threatened to shoot me with one. Remember?"

"Yeah, I remember. So that I could throw you further," Hope recalled back to their evening rendezvous at the park, when Maria was trying to gain her trust.

"Exactly, except you would've killed me with them at that time. That was straight up a death threat!"

"I didn't mean it to be!" Hope laughed, "I'd assumed I'd get them to be able to shrink living organisms by then, okay!"

"Still doesn't change the fact that you threatened to shoot me with a deadly weapon," Maria huffed.

"Well, I'm sorry. I hope you'll be able to find it in your heart to accept my apology," Hope smiled as she began twisting the ends of her hair around her finger, but Maria didn't respond. Hope pulled her hand away from her hair as her back straightened in alarm, "Maria?" She spoke after a few seconds of dead silence.

"I miss you," Maria responded softly, straight after Hope had said her name.

Hope almost whimpered out, "I miss you too," as she pulled her knees into her chest and hugged them, as if she were hugging Maria, before she wiped her eyes that had instantly started to tear. In that moment she felt so scared for Maria, like something dangerous was happening where she was, and it was affecting the agent negatively.

"Tell me more things," the commander softly requested.

Hope nodded her head, trying to pull herself together for Maria's behalf, as she complied. "I was talking about you yesterday with Cassie --ah-- Scott's daughter." Hope tried to tell her as light-heartedly as possible, "and when she learned that you were the boss of the Averages, she instantly became your biggest fan."

"You talk about me to people?" Hope could hear a bit of a tease in her tone, which made Hope smile.

"Yeah, but mostly just to intimidate them. Like I tell them if they cross me I'll get you to sick all of S.H.I.E.L.D. on them," she joked. "You would use your power like that, right?"

"To intimidate those who have wronged you? absolutely," Maria said with conviction. "But were you intimidating Scott's daughter? 'Cause I would never scare my most devout and beloved admirer, Cassandra Lang," she said in a protective way.

"No, I wasn't intimidating the president of your fan club," Hope laughed out before sighing. "She actually invited you to her birthday party next Saturday, but I already told her that you were really busy with work, AKA bossing everyone around, that you probably wouldn't be able to make it. She was pretty disappointed to hear, but that didn't stop her from putting your name on one of her birthday invitations."

"Aw," Maria sounded flattered. "Are you going to the party?"

"Yeah, after the kids leave in the afternoon they're having a dinner with the family, so I'm invited to that, along with my parents, and Scott's best friend, Luis, but it sounds like he might miss dinner because of work, and then --of course-- you."

"Next Saturday?"

"Yeah."

"What time?"

Hope's head jerked up as she asked, "wait, are you..."

"I mean," Maria interrupted her, "you're probably right, the chances of me making it are slim, but I can always try."

Hope's whole body felt warm, like her nerve endings were all dancing in excitement. "Six o'clock at one-seventy-two Greenview Drive."

"Okay, date, time, and location are memorised."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that." Hope was quickly learning that Maria's memory was far superior to the average. "oh --ah-- I gotta go," Maria suddenly sounded distracted, where Hope could have sworn she heard commotion from the other end of the line.

"Okay. Yeah," Hope said, not ready to say goodbye but understanding that she must.

"I'm sorry," Maria said quickly.

"Don't be sorry just stay safe, okay?" Suddenly she heard a click. "Maria?" Hope asked, realising that their call had ended. "Damnit," she muttered in aggravation; as she pushed the edge of her mobile phone into her chin.

She closed her eyes, hoping everything was okay before she slowly stood up, sliding both her phone and the invitation into her pocket, and made her way back into the main lab, where she had abandoned the boys.

Scott was standing on the far side of the table from Hank, with the lab rat, who was brought back to his normal size, in his hand, as he watched the older man tinkering. "Okay, but I just think it makes sense that my backside should be armoured a bit better," Scott said to him.

"So you want padding on the butt of your suit?" He looked up to him, with the most annoyed expression where Hope couldn't help but smirk.

Scott looked over to her as she approached. "Hey, so I was totally not asking what you think I was asking," he flashed her an innocent smile.

Hank then looked to Hope with a scowl on his face, before dropping his head to focused back onto his task at hand. "Well aren't you going to relay the message to Scott?" he asked gruffly, "or do I need to leave because it's classified?"

"What message?" Hope shook her head in confusion.

"I don't know," he raised his head to look back at her, "whatever the Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. called you about."

"We didn't discuss business."

"Then why did she call?"

"Just to talk."

"Oh right, I forgot," he scoffed, looking back at the blaster in hand, "You two arebest buddies."

His attitude and remark towards Maria came at the wrong time. She was so fresh off of her conversation with the agent, where her emotions were peeked, that she couldn't stay silent. "Seriously, what is your deal with her? You have like this irrational disdain for her," her words came sharply.

"She is personally being groomed by Nick Fury himself to become the next leader of S.H.I.E.L.D," he tore his gaze away to look at her; pointing his skrewdriver at her in an accusatory way, "And I can see that you have misguided faith in that organisation, you made that abundantly clear when you joined the Avengers and then proceeded to risk your life for hers." He put his tool down before placing his hands on the table; leaning towards her. "But what you need to know is S.H.I.E.L.D. is insidious. It's truly the brainchild of Howard Stark in every way."

"She went behind Fury's back for us so we could save mom." Hope shot back, "So even if you have a problem with both him and S.H.I.E.L.D, it's unfair to extend it to her."

"Oh, don't be so naive. Fury knew what she was doing, she didn't just secretly help us out, out the goodness of her heart." He picked the screwdriver back up as he began working again, muttering under his breath, "Not that a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent could ever have a heart."

"Oh, someone clearly doesn't have a heart here, and it's not Maria," she practically laughed out in irony.

He then jerked his head back up to glare at her, "you're really still trying to defend her to me?" He growled.

"Defend my girlfriend? Yeah, I am," her words came out so abruptly with such force, it'd taken even her aback. She'd just openly called Maria her girlfriend for the first time, and it was to defend her honour in front of her dad, the one person in the world whom she truly feared.

"Your girlfriend?" He scrunched his face in utter bafflement.

"Yes, my girlfriend," Hope's voice came out strong. "We're in a relationship together," she doubled down; not backing out now.

"No you're not," he said angrily, "you're with Scott," he flailed his hand at her partner, "and besides you're not gay."

"We --ah-- actually broke up like a month ago," Scott spoke up timidly.

"What are you talking about?" Hank looked to him, "You guys have been acting exactly the same as usual," he spat as if he were grasping at straws to try and build a case against what they were telling him; wanting to disprove it.

Scott turned to Hope, as he tried to lighten the mood, "maybe we really were destined to just being friends, since, apparently, people can't even tell the difference from when we're dating or not."

"Wait," Hank looked away from Scott to then fix his gaze onto Hope, "are you being serious with me right now?"

Hope nodded with conviction, "yes."

"So what," his tone revved up even more as he barked, "you're telling me you're a lesbian now?"

"No, it's called being bisexual and I've always been this way," she shot back.

"Please," he looked to her like he thought she were a stupid child. "I've known you your whole life. You're not like that. You're just confused. She's got you all confused. She's manipulating you to control you." He then started attacking Scott, "And what the hell did you do?"

"Me?" Scott asked in terror.

"Yeah, you obviously did something and now Hope's with her."

"Oh my god, stop!" Hope snapped, "he didn't do anything to me, and neither did Maria. Just stop!" She growled through clenched teeth, "this conversation is over."

"What's going on over here?" Janet came down the stairs and over to them from the quantum bridge's control room. She looked to both her husband and her daughter, easily reading their body language. "You two have been getting along so well lately. What happened?"

Hope turned to her as she huffed, "I told him."

"Told him? Told him wha--" her eyes grew in realisation, "oh."

"Wait, you knew our daughter was withthatwomanand you didn't tell me?" His pissy mood was quickly shifted onto Janet.

"It wasn't for her to tell," Hope defended her.

"Hank, don't be so upset," the older woman looked to him, "Maria is a lovely soul. You should be happy for them."

"Are you kidding me?" He threw both his tool and the baster on the table, which made Hope jump. "It's like you people have all lost your minds." He then started trudging towards the elevator, "I'm getting out of this loony bin," he angrily muttered as he disappeared into the lift.

"What the hell is his problem?" Hope turned to her mother in a heated tone, "I mean, I knew he wasn't going to take it well. He barely tolerated Scott at first, but still!"

Scott spoke up, "I think it's fair to say he still barely tolerates me now."

"Fair point," Hope agreed with him.

"He's not good with change, never has been," Janet said in a calming manner, "you know he takes awhile to come around to things."

"Mom," she scoffed, "he's literally still mad at Howard Stark, so much so, that after he died, he just transferred that hatred onto his son and everybody associated with S.H.I.E.L.D." She said adamantly, "he doesn't take awhile to come around, he never comes around. The man is unmovable."

"I'll talk to him," she tried to assure her daughter.

"What's the point?" Hope couldn't see him ever changing his views, "it's not like he's just going to accept her. To him, she's a heartless S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who's confused me into thinking I like women," she felt her eyes welling up, surprised by how much her dad's disapproving words had affected her, "because, apparently, he's not very keen on having a gay daughter."

"Oh, Jellybean, he loves you."

"Mom, please don't," she said sharply as she was trying her damnedest to hold herself together; covering her hurt with her anger. "That justification is wearing pretty damn thin." She noticed that she held some resentment towards her mother in those last words too. She hated how the woman constantly told her, ever since a young age, that her father's behaviour was dismissable for the sheer fact that he still loved them.

Hope then abruptly spun around on her heels, and cantered towards the stairwell, as she huffed, "I'm going to hit the gym," and then forcefully pushed the stairwell doors open, and exited.

* * *

Within ten minutes Hope was on the second storey of the building that houses their lab. The floor was wide open and had a huge sparing mat and various gym equipment that only took up about a third of the space. Her hair was tied up, workout clothes on, and her hands wrapped with boxing gloves over top, as she was beating at a heavy bag with various strike combinations while Linkin Park was blasting through the speaker system.

"You okay?" She heard Scott's voice as he entered the space; slowly walking towards her.

"Peachy," she grunted through a jab, hook, jab, kick combination.

Scott moved to her, grabbing the swinging bag; holding it steady for her as she continued to beat at it. "How was Maria?" He asked.

"She sounded tired," she punched the bag, "and seemed busy," she kicked it; wishing that she was there with Maria now.

"Did you at least have a nice chat though?" He asked like he were concerned that the phone call didn't go well.

Hope punched again at the bag, but was losing both the energy and the heart to keep wailing at it; especially after she started recalling back to their phone conversation. "Yeah." She stood back to look at Scott, softly smiling as she informed him, "she told me she was going to try making it to Cassie's birthday."

"Oh that would be awesome," he gave her a lopsided smile, "Cassie would flip if she showed up."

The fact that Maria was probably not going to make the party, and, judging by how their phone call was abruptly terminated, had instantly dropped her mood. "Yeah," she said in a small voice before she started aggressively punching the bag again, finding her second wind and a new purpose to punch.

"Hope?" Scott's voice sounded cautions, "you don't seem very peachy."

"I'm just worried about her," she finished her combination before taking a breath. "I have this feeling that something's off with her mission." She then started doing side kicks at the bag, "and then there's my dad," she growled through strikes, "I don't even want to talk about him."

"Then we won't." Scott soon moved in front of the bag, stopping her from delivering any more stikes to it. Hope took a step back, allowing him to stand the ground that he'd just claimed. "But I have to say," he locked his gaze onto her eyes, "I think Maria will be alright. She's like super smart and badass, she's probably three steps ahead of whatever she's dealing with right now."

Hope dropped her head, as she allowed his words to sink in. Maria was indeed very smart and very resourceful. She then nodded before raising her eyes to the ceiling; throwing her gloved hands on her hips while catching her breath.

"Do you want to spar? Punching me in the face always seems to cheer you up."

Hope started to laugh as she then looked to the dopey smile on his face before asking, "Don't you have to go meet a client?"

"Yeah, but I could always send Luis."

She smiled at him, so grateful for his kindness, "No, it's okay. I'm okay," she nodded. "But thanks for offering to sacrifice your face for my benefit."

"Well, It's the right thing to do," he nodded with a grin as he started to make his way to the elevator.

"I'll see you tomorrow then?" Hope referenced their daily morning training, as she turned to watch him load into the lift.

"Yeah. see you then," he waved before the doors shut.

Hope turned back to the heavy bag where she suddenly didn't feel like punching it anymore. So she took off her gloves and started slowly unwrapped her hands as she aimlessly walked around the room.

She was deep in thought; imagining all the horrible ways in which her father might react to meeting Maria. She sighed, as much as he could be an asshole, Hope wasn't prepared for him to be estranged from her again. But if he couldn't accept her sexuality and her girlfriend, she might not have a choice. She prayed that he'd be better than that, she needed him to be better than that, because, at the end of the day, she still loved him and wanted him in her life.


	17. Seventeenth

It was a warm and breezy evening when Maria found herself in her civilian clothes, leaning up against her vehicle, which was parked on the street, just outside of Maggie Lang's, Cassie Lang's, and Jim Paxton's house in San Francisco. She stared at the home, lights streaming through the windows into the darkness, as it was the evening of Cassie's birthday party, and Maria was well over an hour late to the event, with the sun that had already set, and the moon out shining.

Maria shouldn't have been there, she should have been halfway around the world right then; distancing herself from exactly where she was, but she couldn't help herself. She needed one last time, a time to be with the woman whom she'd loved, before everything would change.

Maria was sure that her movements there had not been tracked, yet she was still beyond nervous to be standing there. Her anxieties about her mission were instantly replaced by what lay beyond that door, inside that house in front of her. Both Scott and Hope's family were in there. Even though she felt pretty safe with both Janet and Scott, everyone else was an unknown, and it freaked her out. 'Meeting the family' wasn't really something she was familiar with, and as a gay woman, it scared her even more.

The only thing that gave her the strength to pull out her newest burner phone, was her desperation to see Hope again. Maria looked to the screen, plugging in the other woman's number before sending her a text that read, "It's me. Sorry I'm late. I'm outside now," hoping that she'd see it so that she wouldn't have to knock on the door. She was a grown ass woman, a Commander, the freakin' Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D, and yet she was scared shitless to approach the house unaccompanied.

Just as Maria was placing her mobile into her napsack, the front door swung open, and out stepped Hope. She stopped for a moment, standing at the top of the front steps, as she looked to Maria. Her long unbound hair blew in the breeze as her face split into the most beautiful smile, which made Maria's heart skip a beat. Quickly, the woman trotted down the steps as Maria pushed herself off from the side of the vehicle, where the two made haste to meet in the middle of the small yard. Maria dropped her bag to the grass right before their bodies crashed together in a hug, where Hope picked her up, spinning her once as she cheered, "You made it," before placing her back down.

Maria pulled back, only to slide her hands to the sides of Hope's face, looking at her ever so briefly before she pushed her mouth to hers; holding the woman's head so securely between both her grasping hands and her unwavering kiss.

The kiss wasn't gentle, nor was it passionate, it was forceful, like a strong magnet pulling them together. Maria felt an unbelievable sense of dread that it would be one of the last times that she'd have with her lips pushed up against Hope's. She also felt such guilt, but could not help herself from drinking in every ounce of her beautiful angel, as Hope so willingly allowed Maria to take as she pleased. She just couldn't let Hope go, she was her sanctuary, but for how long? Maria feared to find out.

Hope's arms, that were tightly around Maria's back, slowly moved up her body, as her hands casually slid atop of the commander's that were at her face. Hope then gently wrapped her fingers around her hands as Maria allowed her hold on the woman's cheeks to loosen, while Hope took them into her own grip. Hope then timidly pulled her mouth away from Maria's, where it took the other woman a second to allow her to ease herself free. Maria opened her eyes to find Hope already staring at her, as her gaze bore into hers, only for Hope to quickly press a kiss to both of her hands, which sent a chill through Maria's body. She had a way of making Maria feel so safe. Then, like Hope could read her needs, she let go of her hands and gently pulled Maria's head into her shoulder, where Maria sighed into her body; wrapping her arms around her, holding her tightly.

"It was really that bad out there, huh?" Hope kissed her scalp before resting her cheek to her head.

"The worst," she said as a surprising smirk found its way onto her face.

"Is it over yet?" Hope started gently combing through Maria's hair with her fingers.

Maria gulped, knowing that the worst had yet to come. "Not yet," she tried not to let her nerves come through in her tone of voice.

"When do you have to get back out there?"

The true answer was, right away, but she'd be damned to live in that reality. "Soon."

"Soon?" Hope repeated for clarification.

"A few hours," she said while stubbornly forcing Hope into her schedule. Hope aggressively sighed in response to her answer before tightening her grip around Maria, as if to communicate that she didn't want to let her leave. "I'm sorry," Maria said in defeat, as she too squeezed her harder, feeling terrible for everything.

Hope pulled back a little to cup Maria's face in her hands, "don't apologise," she said fervently before she pushed lose locks of hair behind Maria's ear with her fingers, which made the Commander's skin tingle. "I get it," Hope smirked, "the magic wears off at midnight, so you have to leave your shoe on the stairs before your car turns back into a pumpkin."

Maria chuckled at her words which made Hope giggle along. Maria stared into Hope's shining eyes, as she couldn't get over just how much she'd loved her.

"Hope?" A young girl popped her head out of the front door, who Maria could only assume was the birthday girl.

"Hey, Cassie," Hope moved her hands away from Maria as she waved the girl over, "Do you want to come here and say hi to Maria?"

The girl looked timidly towards Maria before nodding. She then nervously hung her head as she slowly walked down the stairs towards them.

Maria, wanting to make the girl feel more comfortable, decided to acknowledge her, "Oh, good, there you are," Maria smiled at Cassie, "I'm short on agents these days, and I've heard you might be just the person to help me out."

"Me?" The girl stopped in front of them, as her interest seemed peaked.

"Yeah. You've gone through agent training already, right?"

Cassie looked to her in confusion, "My daddy taught me how to sneak around and escape places that I'm not supposed to be in."

"Oh that's good," Maria nodded, "that's definitely a skill that's needed."

Cassie's eyes lit up as she asked with excitement, "Does that mean I can be one of your agents?"

"Absolutely," Maria reached for her bag. "But first, we need to make sure you're properly equipped for your missions, Agent Lang." She then started rummaging through her bag. "The sun is down right now, which means you have to be ready for a night op. Do you know what you need for those?" Cassie shook her head. "Night vision goggles," Maria pulled out the mentioned item from her sac, where she quickly turned them on.

"Woah!" Cassie squirmed with glee as Maria gently put them over her head, where the girl was quick to adjust them properly over her eyes. She then whipped her head about, looking around, "I can see in the dark!" The girl instantly moved around the yard in pure excitement.

Hope took a hold of Maria's hand, threading their fingers together, as she leaned in to her, yet never took her eyes off of the girl. "Did you just give a nine-year-old night vision goggles for her birthday?"

"Well, It's not like I had a chance to stop into a toy store," Maria smirked, moving her head to look at Hope, where the woman turned to catch her peering.

Hope grinned before leaning in to quickly kiss Maria on the lips. "You just made a new best friend, I hope you realise that."

"Correction, I just made a new best agent. She's going to put all my other agents to shame."

"How come everything's green?" Cassie asked loudly, like she was trying to yell over the noise of the colour itself, while she approached them, still wearing her goggles.

"They make them that way because our eyes are sensitive to the colour." Maria recalled back to how they were explained to her, "apparently, if they didn't do that, then they'd be in black-and-white, and that makes it harder to see."

"But how?" She asked, while taking off the head gear.

"How?" Maria shook her head in confusion.

"How do they work?" Cassie shook the goggles in her hands.

"Ahhh," Maria was completely dumbfounded, not actually grasping the technology herself. She was fairly compitant when it came to mechanics that she could physically see the system of; things like machinery and circuit boards, but with something like night vision goggles, she didn't have the scientific background to understand how they'd worked.

"The dim light from the night sky enters this lens here," Hope jumped in as she pointed to the end of the gadget. "Now light is made up of a bunch of teeny-tiny particles called photons, which, inside of here," she gesture to the centre of the short spyglass shaped tube, "get turned into elections, which are even smaller than photons."

"So electrons make me see in the dark?" Cassie asked her.

"Yes, but there's a little more to it."

"What else more?" The girl was excited to learn.

"Okay," Hope smiled. "Then those electrons get turned into even more electrons by something called a photomultiplier."

"Photomultiplier," Cassie repeated. "That's what's inside here?" She pointed to the goggles.

"Yes," Hope nodded, "Then all those electrons get to this last part here," she pointed to the inside of the goggles, "and they make little tiny flashes of light, like a TV screen, which is the image you see when you look through them."

"Cool!" Cassie grinned, "flashing electrons make me see," she put her goggles back on as she went to look at the dimly lit garden in front of the house.

"You know," Maria let go of Hope's hand as she pushed her long hair off of her shoulder, to behind her back, before she spoke into her ear in hushed tones, "You're kinda hot when you talk science. I mean, photons, electrons, and photomultipliers. Tell me more."

Hope turned her head to face her. "Well, I didn't even mention the photocathode and the phosphor screen," she hummed seductively.

Maria's eyes were glued to Hope's mouth, where the commander licked her lips, absolutely turned on by how smart she was, as all her worries were temporarily replaced by her gorgeous and intelligent girlfriend. Maria then wrapped her arm around her waist; tugging her closely into her body. "Yes talk nerdy to me, my sexy little scientist."

Hope chuckled while dropping her forehead to the other woman's. Then, just as Hope had teasingly nipped at Maria's bottom lip, they heard Scott calling, "really, guys?" They both turned towards the sound of his voice, to find him standing at the top of the stairs. "You're making out right in front of my kid?" They then looked to Cassie, who was crouching down, intently studying a flower pot through her goggles, with her back turned to them.

Maria then looked back to him to discover that he was now wearing a playful grin. "Hey, Maria," he greeted her as he made his way down to them.

"Hi," she nodded with a smile.

"Glad you could make it."

"Daddy!" Cassie then came running over to him. "Maria made me one of her agents, and gave me goggles that make you see in the dark!"

Scott threw his hands on top of his hips as he said to her in a tone of warning, "now, Cassie, you know you can't just become a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and then continue to call Maria by her first name." she cocked her head as she listened. "She's now your superior officer, which means, from now on, you must address her as Commander."

"Oh," she pushed her goggles on top of her forehead.

"Did you say thank you for the night vision goggles?"

The girl took in a sharp panicked breath. "I forgot!" She blurred to her dad before turning to the agent. "Thank you, Commander Maria!"

Maria chuckled in hearing her first name trailing after her title like that, but didn't have the heart to correct her. "You're welcome, Agent Lang," she smiled at the girl.

"Can I show you all the other presents I got?" She asked her excitedly.

Maria smiled, "sure," as Cassie had reminded her a lot of her little brother, back when he was a kid; and how he'd always excitedly engaging with her like that.

"Yay," she cheered, "they're in the living room," the girl turned around and barreled up the front steps to then wait for her to follow.

"Wow," Scott muttered to Maria under his breath, "she doesn't normally take to new people this fast." He then turned to make his way towards his daughter, where Hope grabbed both Maria's hand and her bag as she then tugged her to follow. "Okay, Peanut," he addressed the girl as he opened the door and guided her inside, "just give Maria a chance to settle in before you bombard her with all your new toys, okay?"

"Okay," she agreed as she disappeared inside the house where Scott trailed in after her.

Right before the two women started to climb the steps, Hope halted them. She then turned to Maria before asking in an apprehensive tone, "are you ready for this?"

"Are you?" Maria saw the fear in her eyes that made her much more concerned for Hope's sake than her own.

Hope bit her lip nervously before sighing. "My dad he's… ah…," she dropped her head as she seemed to be failing to find the words, but Maria was pretty sure she understood.

Maria squeezed her hand encouragely. "Don't worry, disapproving parents is kinda my thing."

Hope looked up, catching her gaze, where she then gave her a soft heartwarming smirk. Maria smiled back before she turned to climb the stairs, where Hope hurried in front of her to open the door and lead her inside.

The entryway lead into the living room, where Maria caught sight of Cassie already at a pile of toys and ripped up wrapping paper on the floor. On a recliner chair at the far end of the room, sat Hank Pym, and to the opposite side, were a blonde woman and a tall man with dark hair, who both stood up to the sight of them entering. Maria instantly assumed the two were Scott's ex-wife, and her fiancé.

The couple came over to Maria, pushing past Scott. "Hi, you must be Maria," the tall man said with a very welcoming smile. "We heard you might make it today. We're so happy to have you. I'm, Paxton," he extended his hand to hers.

"Hi, nice to meet you," Maria shook his offered hand.

"And I'm Maggie," the blonde leaned in and took her hand next, but as she got in closer to her, she muttered, "my god, you're stunning," the woman studied her face which made Maria feel slightly embarrassed. "I mean, Hope definitely found her match," she flicked her eyes to the other woman. "You two make a gorgeous couple," Maggie let go of Maria's hand.

"Whoa," Paxton exclaimed. "Scott is stunning too. Don't make him feel like he's less pretty than Maria," he went to the mentioned man, stepping behind him as he wrapped his arms around him. "I mean, look at this gorgeous face," Paxton let go of him only to squish his palms into his cheeks.

"Thanks buddy," Scott patted his arm.

Maggie then stepped to the guys as Paxton removed his hands from Scott's face, where Maggie was quick to aggressively pat Scott's cheek, "yes, your face is pretty too," she then leaned in to quickly kiss the spot that she'd just lovingly smacked at.

Maria turned her head to Hope, a little confused by the trio's dynamic, where the other woman just smiled as she shrugged her shoulders. Maria couldn't help but smile back at her, not quite believing how welcoming and nice Scott and his family were being, not only towards her, but towards each other. Though, it was all making a lot more sense to her now as to why Scott had been so good towards her after her and Hope had started dating. He'd already had experience with being friendly with the ex and their new partner.

"Maria, are you hungry?" Maggie asked. "we have lots of leftovers."

"No thank you. I'm fine," She said even though she hadn't eaten in awhile; she just didn't have much of an appetite that whole month. She was one who could never seem to get food down when she was stressed, which explained why she had always been on the thin side for her whole life.

"Okay. But if you change your mind. Feel free to go into the fridge and help yourself to anything." Maggie pointed off to the other room, "kitchen's just through there."

Maria then heard the squeak of a floorboard, as Janet soon appeared; descending the stairwell that ended in front of the foyer. "Maria!" The woman grinned as she made her way over to her, "Oh, I'm so glad you made it," she threw her arms around her, where Maria didn't hesitate as she instantly hugged her back. She'd only known Janet for a brief moment, but felt so comfortable with her. She emanating this warmth that she'd always wished that her own mother had possessed. Janet then pulled back as she held Maria by the elbows. "This is where you belong, here with us," she made direct eye contact as she nodded, which caused Maria's eyes to well up, which was the second time Janet had evoked this reaction in her.

"Pft," Maria heard an aggravated grunt coming from Hank in his chair. Janet then let go of her to quickly turn and glare at him, from across the room, in reaction to his outburst.

"You know what?" Maggie seemed to notice the newly arised tension. "I'm going to make you up a plate just in case," she looked to Maria before turning to her daughter. "Cassie, come help me in the kitchen for a minute."

"But I want to show Commander Maria my presents."

"Yes, you can afterwards."

"Okay," she huffed while getting up and walking towards the kitchen where Maggie was quick to grab Paxton's arm, dragging him away behind Cassie, which made Maria wonder if everyone had known that Hank wasn't her biggest fan.

"This is Hank," Janet moved to give Maria a full view of the man sitting in the chair, who had a three-dimensional puzzle contraption made up of rope, rings, and balls, in his hands that she'd assumed was Cassie's.

After a moment of him refusing to acknowledging them, with his head down, playing around with the puzzle, Hope sharply hissed, "Dad!"

He sighed in annoyance before he spoke, "I'm surprised you showed up." He then lifted his head to look at Maria, "I didn't think the leash Fury had you on was long enough."

Maria could sense Hope's body tensing next to her, like it was ready to attack, but the commander didn't want her to worry about her, she didn't want her to have to defend herself, or anybody else, ever again; against this man who had hit her mother, and made the two of them feel unsafe. So Maria placed her hand across Hope's body, putting a literal barrier between her and her dad, as she said calmly with a disingenuous smile, "My leash has never been quite as short as the one Stark attached to you," she reference his late mentor.

"Howard's long dead," he grunted at her as if she were stupid.

"Yes, yet S.H.I.E.L.D. still stands," her smile never faulted as she implied that Hank was indeed still on a leash, and she was the one now holding it.

She could see his eyes go wild in regards to her statement. "I didn't know exactly what to expect," he angrily snarled, "yet here you are and I'm not the least bit surprised by any of it."

Maria stared him down, never once allowing her gaze to falter as she responded, "funny, you'reexactlywhatI had expected, so I guess neither of us are surprised here."

"Commander!" Cassie came rushing in, "Do you want chicken or tofu?"

Maria peeled her eyes off of Hank to look at the girl.

"Quesadillas," Scott then timidly added to clarify his daughters question.

Maria smirked at the girl and her innocence, "tofu please."

"Okay!" she then bounded off as quickly as she'd appeared. "Mom, she wants tofu!" They heard her yelling from the other room.

"Um," Scott awkwardly yet quickly suggest, "how about we all sit down?" He forced a smile while gesturing to the sofas, taking full advantage of his daughter's interruption.

Janet nodded, as she linked her arm around Maria's. "sounds good," she said in a warm tone like she were completely ignoring Hank and his attitude towards the new party guest. She then led her to the large couch that Maggie and Paxton had previously been sitting on, with Hope, dropping Maria's bag by the door, before following behind. "So, tell me how you've been," Janet lowered herself to the seat, bringing Maria with her, as Hope claimed the spot on the other side of the commander.

Before Maria could even process the question, Hank huffed as he stood up from his chair, throwing the puzzle on top of it, as he grumbled to himself while walking to the front door; exiting the house.

Maria heard Hope sigh in aggravation before Janet spoke up apologetically, "sorry about him. He has this issue with S.H.I.E.L.D. and everything connected to it."

"He just has issues, period," Hope scoffed under her breath from the other side of her. Maria, in response, blindly reached over to her leg, where Hope was quick to take her hand in her own, while Maria remained focused on Janet.

"You don't have to apologise," Maria said, displeased with how Janet was taking on the responsibility for his actions. "And besides, it's not like I was helping the situation," she admitted, worried that she'd offended one or both of the women with her comments towards Hank.

"No," Hope responded, "you definitely didn't help while living up to your cold bitch title." Maria then whipped her head to the side, relieved to find the woman smirking at her.

"When I said 'disapproving parents was my thing', I more so meant that I had experience with them, and not so much that I knew how to properly deal with them."

Hope chuckled at her before saying, "No, I think you dealt with the situation just fine."

"Yeah," Scott jumped in, as he sat down on the couch opposite them, "Now I won't be the the pebble in Hank's shoe anymore because of you," he cheekily smiled.

Hope responded, "don't get your hopes up too high there, 'cause Maria will probably just be the rock added to your pebble. And I'll be...," she stopped for a moment to think, "I'll be the hole that keeps tearing bigger and bigger in the toe of his sock."

"Oh, don't be so dramatic," Janet huffed with a chuckle before she patted Maria's leg, where the commander was quick to look at her. "Hope might not be as stubborn and theatrical as Hank, but it's still fair to say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree," she winked at her.

"Really?" Hope pushed her face over Maria's shoulder so that she could glare at her mother.

Maria let go of Hope's hand, only to bring it up to the avenger's head; sinking her fingers into her hair as she turned her neck to focus onto the side of her face. Maria then teased her, "don't be so dramatic." Hope responded by shifting her glare from off her mother to Maria which, in turn, resulted in the Commander's hand position to change, as her fingers were now brushing over Hope's surgery spot. "Hey, your mini putting green feels so soft," Maria said while trying to get a rise out of her as she moved her digits back and forth over the area.

"Stop!" Hope growled while smacking her hand away and pulling her head back. "You people, always touching my head," she muttered where Maria chuckled before she shared a look with Scott, who was smiling at her.

"I have your plate!" Cassie came into the room, stopping when she noticed an empty chair. "Where did Dr. Pym go?"

"He needed some fresh air," Janet answered.

"Oh," she then continued to Maria, passing her her food. "Mom says you don't have to eat it." She then passed her a can of pop that she was holding in her other hand. "Hope said you like Diet Dr. Pepper."

"I do, thank you," Maria smiled, loving that Hope had remembered that personal detail about her, as she placed the plate on top of her lap and held the drink in her hand.

Cassie then turned back to the older woman, "is he coming back? Because he said he'd figure out my puzzle for me."

"How about you pass the puzzle around the room and see if anyone else can get it," she suggested while not answering the part about if Hank was returning.

She nodded while going to the mentioned item, passing it to Janet first, just as Maggie and Paxton came back into the room and sat down on either side of Scott on the sofa.

Maria heard the two muttering a question regarding Hank's wearabouts to Scott that he basically answered with a look and a shrug, while Cassie went to her present pile and grabbed up a large white box. The girl then hurried towards Maria. "Look, Commander Maria," She held up the gift in front of her, "Hope gave me this!"

Maria studied the box before looking at Hope, "you gave her a chemistry set?" she smiled, "you're such a nerd."

"Oh, shut your face," she picked up a piece of food from off her plate, "and eat your quesadilla," she shoved it into Maria's face, where the commander grabbed it into her mouth. Then Hope leaned in closer as she whispered right into her ear, "besides, I already know you're into science nerds." Her words, that couldn't be any truer, sent a shiver through her body.

Maria quickly straightened her body, trying her best to not be distracted by Hope, as she bit off a piece of food; chewing it and swallowing it. "So, are you going to clone anybody with your set?" Maria asked.

"Yes!" Cassie grinned, "Daddy's first, then mom wants to be next so her clone can do the dishes for her."

"And the laundry," Maggie added in.

"Makes sense," Maria smiled at the woman.

"Do you want to be cloned too?" Cassie asked her.

"Yes please, but can I have like five clones?"

"Okay, as long as I have enough supplies in my kit left."

"Fingers crossed," Maria winked at her.

The girl then proceeded to show all of her birthday gifts to Maria while the commander continued to eat her food as she enjoyed everyone's company. She couldn't help but feel at home there. It was different than when she was hanging out with her friends at S.H.I.E.L.D, whom she'd considered her found family. What her colleagues had not fulfilled in her was what she had felt in that two storey San Francisco home with her current company. It was what she'd always dreamed about when she was young. Sitting on a sofa with the woman whom she'd loved, and on the other side, a motherly figure who had accepted her for who she truly was. She had a home cooked meal in front of her while a little girl, who had basically adopted her as an aunt figure, was happily engaging with her. Even Scott was seemingly turning out to feel more and more like a brother to her. This happiness that she was feeling was now making her concern even greater, knowing that she would most likely lose these people in her life.

"So, Maria," Maggie spoke up after Cassie had efficiently talked off Maria's ear about all her presents. "is Commander like one of the highest ranks in S.H.I.E.L.D. then?"

"Ah, no," Maria shook her head. "Commander isn't technically a rank in the organisation, it's a title." The blonde looked to her in confusion. "So, I have more than one title, but my highest one is Deputy Director, which means I work directly under the Director."

Paxton interjected to help explain to his fiancée, "That would be Director Fury."

"Oh yes, I remember Scott mentioning him," she said.

"Yes," Maria said, "but because I also command the helicarriers, I have the title off--"

"Commander," Maggie nodded. "Okay, I think I get it. So you basically have two titles?"

"Actually, I have three."

"You have three titles?" Hope gawked.

Maria turned her head to her, "see, this is why I need five clones. Too many jobs."

"Wait," Maggie asked, "what's your third title?"

"Yeah," Hope eyed her, "'cause being a cold b-i-t-c-h isn't an official title."

Cassie then looked up from one of her toys as she gasped, "I know what bad word Hope just spelled!"

Maria allowed her mouth to go agape as she had to hold back a laugh. "You're such a bad influence on the innocent child."

Hope then pushed her hand into Maria's face as Maggie addressed her daughter. "It's fine Cass, don't worry about it."

After Maria swatted the annoying hand away, Hope asked her again. "So, what is it?"

"It's Agent," Maria said as if it were obvious.

"Oh, I guess that makes perfect sense," Hope said, but then she got a funny look in her eye as she muttered, "but at least Scott and I have the cooler title." She brought her legs up onto the couch as she hugged her knees into her chest, "cooler than all three of your titles combined," she eyed her mischievously

"Oh, please. Being an Average is not that cool," she rolled her eyes at her.

"I heard a hint of envy in that tone," Hope eyed her, "Scott did you hear it too?" She never took her eyes off of her.

"Loud and clear," he agreed with his partner. "Cassie," Scott caught the girl's attention, "what do you think is cooler, being an avenger like Daddy and Hope?" He pointed to the two of them with excitement. "or" he scrunched his face in disgust, "being second in charge, not even first in charge, of a boring agency, and telling a bunch of lame flying ships what to do," he pointed to the commander, "like Maria?"

"The question is irrelevant," Maria stared him down.

"How so?" He questioned her.

"Because I'm firing both of you right now from the Avengers, 'cause my superior title gives me the power to do that."

"Yeah," Cassie jumped to her feet, "'cause Commander Maria is the boss!"

Maria excitedly asked her, "which makes me the coolest, right?"

"Right!" Cassie cheered, while Maria put her hand out where the girl was quick to jump to it and give her a high-five.

Scott then bounded to his feet while he jokingly pointed, "traitor!" at his daughter, who screamed before running away in laughter as her dad had chased her right out the front door.

"Don't run into the streets!" Maggie called out at them like it was a force of habit, and not so much that she was worried for their safety.

"She's going to sleep like a log tonight," Paxton commented to his fiancée where she smiled at him.

Maria then turned to Hope, but to her surprise, she wasn't looking at her with annoyance, instead she had a soft expression on her face before she smirked and gently asked, "so, I'm fired then?"

"Unfortunately," Maria nodded with fake sympathy as she turned her upper body to face her. "No more Avengers for you."

Hope held her gentle expression as she took the empty plate and pop can from Maria's hands, placing them atop the end table to the other side of her, before she dropped the weight of her body into Maria's side. The commander then smirked while wrapping her arm around her upper back, hugging her in close. "Well, it was a good run while it lasted," Hope sighed; resting her head atop her chest. Maria chuckled in response to her while she reached with her free hand to take a hold of Hope's in her grasp; threading their fingers together.

Suddenly the front door crashed open where Cassie pulled Hank inside by his hand. "I found Dr. Pym!" She announced. "He said he was out walking." Maria then felt Hope tense in her arms to the introduction of the man.

"Yes, yes," he muttered, yet was clearly trying to remain pleasant in front of the girl while Scott entered the house behind them.

Hank then noticed the two women cuddling on the sofa which made him scoff. He then quickly took his eyes off of them before he made his way back to his same spot in the recliner.

"Cassie, dear," Janet called the girl over.

"Yes, Aunty Janet?" She walked to her.

"I'm just not getting this puzzle," the woman passed her the object that she had been fiddling with for a long while. "Maybe you could give it back to the doctor over there," she gesture at Hank with her head.

"Wait," Maria, who was not pleased by how the man had made Hope react by his presence, asked, "May I try it first?" Wanting to see if she could solve it before he could.

"Okay," she passed it to her, where Maria had to untangle herself from Hope to take it. The woman studied it, turning it over in her hands. "You have to get the ring that's near the red ball all the way over to the green ball," Cassie pointed to the mentioned objects that were all tethered by a single rope, that was twisted through various blockades, with the two balls on opposite sides.

Maria nodded, already understanding the objective. She had to figure out a pattern to move the various pieces about to allow the ring to slide along. She'd noticed Janet already trying different things, making note of how far the rope could be manipulated throughout the system; which wasn't by much. Maria turned the puzzle in her hands for about a minute, visualising the possible movements without physically trying any of them.

"Okay," she said, "I think I've got it."

"Please," Hank spoke up from his spot, totally unconvinced.

Maria looked up to glare at him, not saying a word before dropping her head to start executing her plan; as she began to move the pieces about.

"Wait," Cassie said as she watched Maria work, "you're supposed to get it to the other side, not slide it further away," she pointed to the ring that the commander was moving in the opposite direction of where its intended final destination was.

"To complete a task," Maria twisted at the rope, "often you have to look at the bigger picture," she looped it over part of the puzzle, "because when you focus only on the individual steps independent of the system, they might seem counterintuitive," she put a specific knot in the rope, manipulating the ring around and then through its loops, "but it's not until you look at the problem as a whole," she changed the knot up, and pushed the ring over and then through it again, "you can find your solution," she then finally slid the ring straight to the green ball.

Cassie's eyes lit up as she gasped, "You did it!"

"Did you really?" Scott leaned forwards in his chair.

"Cassie got that from my mom yesterday," Maggie explained, like she were in complete awe, "We've all been trying to solve it since then."

Scott continued, "I was playing with it for awhile when the kids were all here. I was convinced you needed plyers to complete it."

"Daddy said it was impossible," Cassie told Maria as she took the puzzle out her hand and brought it over to her father. "But you were wrong," she addressed him.

He scooped her into his lap, "well it was almost impossible. I mean, we had to bring out the big guns to solve it."

The girl looked to him in confusion as she said, "but a big gun didn't solve it, Commander Maria did."

"I was ready to take out a big gun on that thing," joked Paxton. "I was frustrated after one minute with that," he gestured to the puzzle.

"Luis seemed to have almost had it this afternoon," said Maggie.

Both Paxton and Scott chuckled before Scott shook his head, "he really didn't."

Maria couldn't help herself as she looked over to Hank, who was ignoring everyone as he was conveniently reading the back of the chemistry set box, hiding his face.

Just then Maggie's mobile phone chimed, which made her check a message. The action reminded Maria of the time passing, knowing that her window was soon closing. She couldn't be gone for too long or she'd raise suspicion; possibly sabotaging her whole mission. Maria, in response, gazed down at her wrist, checking the time on her watch.

Hope then gently took a hold of her wrist, right next to her watch, where Maria looked up to her. "You don't have to go yet, do you?"

"No, not quite yet."

"Do you want to get out of here with me now?" She asked in a low voice. "I could show you our lab." Maria bit back a grin, ecstatic by the idea of getting away to be alone with Hope, as she placed her hand on the one that was grasping her arm. Hope smirked, "I'm going to take your smile as a yes."

"That's smart." Hope's green eyes were fixed on hers, as Maria slid her hand up the woman's arm to her elbow, only to then move it back down. "Also," Maria hummed softly, "I'd like to keep my word on what I'd said I'd do to you the next time I saw you."

Suddenly Hope's grasp, that she had on Maria's wrist, tightened where she then quickly turned to the room. "Ah, Maria and I are going to start heading out now."

"No," Cassie whined as she slid off her dad's lap, throwing the puzzle onto his legs, as she hurried over to them. "You guys can't leave yet," she placed her little hands on both of their knees.

"Now, Cassie," Maggie warned her, "You can't hold your guests hostage."

She pouted, "Commander Maria, I'm still going to be your agent, even after you leave, right?"

"You better be, because I have a top secret mission for you," Maria looked to the girl, realising that Cassie had the potential to help her.

"What is it?"

Maria looked around the room before she leaned towards her, "Not here. I'll tell you in the dining room," Maria remembered seeing the location when she'd initially walked into the house.

Soon the two were in the other room together where Maria had a knee to the floor as she gave Cassie her specific instructions, and then made her assure her that she wouldn't tell anyone.

"Are you two secret agents done with your mission briefing yet?" Hope popped her head out from behind the wall after about five minutes had passed.

"Yes, I think so," Maria nodded before looking back to Cassie. "Do you feel confident that you can complete your mission, Agent Lang?"

"Yes, Ma'am," she saluted her.

"Good," she smiled.

Then, right before she was about to lift herself up off the floor, Cassie sprang forwards, hugging her around her neck, "thanks for coming to my birthday party."

Maria gently hugged her back, "Well thanks for inviting me."

Cassie then pulled away from her smiling, before she made her way to the other woman where she proceeded to hug her around her waist. "Bye, Hope."

Hope wrapped her arms around her shoulders, "Bye, Cassie," she smiled. "I'll see you next weekend."

The girl's head then jerked up as she looked at her, "at my soccer tournament, right?"

"Yes," she laughed. "But I might only make it for one game though."

"That's okay," she let go of her.

Suddenly everyone was up and at the door, minus Hank who grumpily remained seated, as they all had said their farewells to the women.

After leaving the house, outside in the front yard, Hope turned to Maria as she asked, "Do you want me to drive us both over to the lab?"

"But what about my vehicle? She pointed at the crossover parked on the street.

Hope pulled out her keys, which seemed to have a little device attached to the rings. "I could always shrink it and we can take it with us," she pointed the device at her vehicle.

"No!" Maria pushed her hands up playfully; grabbing her wrists "I still have P.T.S.D. from the last time you did that to my ride."

Hope laughed, "Is this still about your candies?"

"Yes," she let go of her. "No shrinking. I'll just follow you with my car like a normal person." Maria then started off towards her vehicle.

"Are you calling me abnormal because I shrink things, including myself?" She called out to her.

"Yes!" Maria smiled at her cheekily before she got into her vehicle, where she could see Hope shaking her head in good fun through the passenger window, before she went to her own car that was in the driveway.

Soon Maria and Hope found themselves in front of of the lab that was sitting atop a hill right next to the ocean.

"So, you can just park your lab on prime waterfront real estate and no one notices or says anything?" Maria asked as she pointed at the dimly lit lot, while she walked over to Hope, who was standing right in front of the building's enterence.

"Well, we own this land," Hope shrugged.

"This land," Maria pointed to where the building sat, not knowing where the lab's latest location had been until that moment, since it was no longer her her job to track it.

"More like," Hope gestured over the rolling hills on one side, "this land," and then moved her hands in the opposite direction to point off into the distance on the other side.

"Wow, okay there, Daddy Warbucks."

Hope chuckled, "shut up," as she took her hand and dragged her inside.

Hope led her through the first floor that looked like a very rundown office building. "Impressive decoy entry," Maria looked about the space.

"Thanks, I had a lot of fun smashing up the place," Hope smiled as she brought her into the elevator.

When the doors opened to the lab, Maria gawked at just how large and high tech it all looked. "Okay, this place definitely gives Tony's lab a run for its money." She took a few more steps as she turned about, letting her eyes fall onto the magnitude of it all. "The only thing you're missing is a collection of luxury cars."

"Untrue," Hope walked over to a table off to the end; Maria following. She then grabbed a satchel from atop it, unzipping it before she tilted it open for her to see a bunch of miniaturised vehicles inside.

Maria grinned, "well I'll be damned," she shook her head.

Then suddenly, from the corner of her eye, she saw a giant ant passing by which made her body jolt. She gulped while she speedily focused onto the creepy looking insect that was blown up in size. She felt her heart beginning to race while watching its disturbing looking feelers twitching about, while she took a giant step backwards, not wanting it anywhere near her.

"Hey," Hope touched her elbow which made Maria jump. "Oh my god, are you afraid of ants?"

Maria whipped her head around to look at her. "No, I'm not afraid of ants," she said defensively, "because ants are this big," she used her thumb and index finger to show the size of a little bug. She then gesture back to the insect that was now walking away into another part of the lab, "that, is not natural, okay?"

Hope chuckled as she wrapped her arms around her waist. "Don't worry, I'll protect you from the scary bug," she said patronisingly.

"Shut up," Maria grumbled while she turned in her arms; hugging her back as she dropped her forehead to Hope's. "They shouldn't be that big," she huffed.

"Just like your vehicles shouldn't be that small?"

"You guys are playing god with sizes. Not unlike how seven-eleven made the Big Gulp. I feel like I'm allowed to be a little wary."

Hope laughed, "please, we are way more competent than seven-eleven."

"You better be because the whole world laughs at us for our abhorrent drink sizes, and it's all because of that kind of irresponsibility."

"You are ridiculous," Hope muttered before she pushed her mouth to hers in a soft kiss. "Do you want to see my apartment upstairs?" She asked after their lips parted, "I promise there are no giant ants up there." Maria didn't say a word, instead she grabbed Hope by the hand and made hast towards the elevator, where the other woman chuckled as she was being towed behind.

When they'd entered her apartment, Maria couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by emotion. It wasn't because of the room's stylised yellow sofa set that sat next to a stone fireplace, nor was it the rich looking stainless steel kitchen off to the end, or the windows that lined every wall of the space, no what it was was the fact that it was Hope's place. It was an extension of her which made Maria feel instantly comfortable in it.

"What?" Hope asked her.

"Huh?" Maria looked over to her.

"I don't know, you look like you have something to say."

"No, it's just that your place is really nice. Definitely not what I'm used to."

"Why? What's your place like?"

"I don't have one." Maria shrugged, "or I guess, I have many. Housing on various bases, my apartment at the tower, my bunk rooms on the helicarriers."

"None of those sound like a home."

"No, they don't," Maria agreed, realising that she couldn't remember the last time she truly felt at home anywhere, except for maybe her childhood's best friend's house before they moved out of state. But she had to admit it; Hope's apartment sure did have that same familiar aura about it that her friend's place had. Like she was safe inside of it. "Does this place feel like home to you?"

"Yes." Her tone then shifted, "but I fear that might change."

"Why would it change?"

Hope sighed, "my dad," as she meandered to one of the windows that overlooked the ocean that was partially lit up by the night sky. The woman stood in front of it where Maria could see her downtrodden face off of the reflection in the glass. "His problem wasn't just because of your job."

"Yeah, I know." Maria went up from behind her, wrapping her arms around her waist where Hope was quick to fold her arms over themselves to hug Maria's hold around her. "You know what I think?"

"Hm?" Hope hummed as she tilted her head back to rest it on Maria's shoulder.

"I think it's going to work itself out," she referred to Hank's opinion on Hope's sexuality, as she thought back to her own experience. "I know what a parent turning their back on their daughter looks like. I don't see that when I look at your dad."

Hope sighed, "my mom thinks all he needs is time."

"I think she might be right," Maria slipped an arm away so that she could comb her fingers through Hope's hair. "As long as you feel comfortable giving him that time."

Hope didn't respond, she simply remained in Maria's embrace while gently swirling her fingertips over Maria's forearm. It was then that Maria's thoughts shifted back to her mission. She closed her eyes; pushing her cheek to Hope's head; desperate for her time with her to never end.

Eventually Hope turned to face her as she instructed, "follow me."

Maria didn't even have the choice to disobey for that Hope seized her hand and pulled her along, with zero complaints from the commander.

She took her to the back of the apartment, guiding her into a huge master bedroom. Hope didn't even have the opportunity to flick on any lights for that Maria was too fast; tugging her back to herself while scooping her up into her arms.

Hope let out a chuckle as she wrapped her legs around her hips and her arms around her back before Maria lowered her onto the bed.

Maria studied her angelic face, lit by the moonlight that was streaming in through the windows, as she muttered, "You're so goddamn beautiful," before she lowered her head to kiss her; pushing her tongue inside Hope's welcoming mouth.

If this were to truly be the last time she'd be with Hope, then she'd be spending it apologising to her; little sorries within every touch on her body. She honest to god hoped that her mission would kill her, because it would be a better fate than to survive it to bare witness to Hope losing faith in her; seeing Maria as the one who betrayed them all. But she truly had no other choice, so she'd spend her final moments making love to the woman of her dreams, savouring the last of her happiness before her inevitable doom.

* * *

Maria had been so gentle and slow with her; taking her time to pour her love and devotion into every inch of Hope's body. It was so different from their first time, which was fast and passionate. This time, however, Hope was on the verge of tears the whole way through; not being able to handle everything Maria was giving to her and at the degree she had been delivering it. Hope had fallen undone more times then she'd thought was physically possible, with Maria refusing her advances to reciprocate any of it. Hope had even struggled in removing Maria's clothing, only getting her down to her socks and underwear, because the woman was far too focused on Hope to help her get them off of her.

Hope had now found herself tangled in Maria's limbs, her head resting on the commander's shoulder as they held each other. She'd never felt so blissful. It's not like she'd never had good sex before, nor was she a stranger to the feeling of love, but what she felt for this woman in her arms was beyond what she'd ever experienced with anyone else, she'd never known that what she was feeling, was even possible until Maria.

Hope lifted her head so that she could press a kiss to Maria's neck. She pushed rather forcefully as she held her lips to her skin; her thoughts dwelling on just how much she'd loved her. Their evening together had been practically perfect, even despite her father's grievances. Maria had just fit in with everyone, like --how her mother had put it-- she had belonged there with them.

After Hope had pulled away from her neck she could hear Maria taking in a sharp choppy breath, while she slid a hand to Hope's head, only to pull it back into her body; her grip tightening as to hold her closer.

After a moment, Maria broke the silence as she softly asked, "You know the trolley problem?"

In absolute confusion as to why Maria was bringing up a thought experiment in ethics, Hope simply rattled out what she'd assumed the other woman was referring to, "you mean, there's a train moving towards five tied up people on the tracks. You have the option to pull a lever to switch the tracks, but if you do, you hit a single person who's on the other line who's also tied up?"

"Yeah."

"What about it?"

"Would you pull the lever? Sacrifice the few to save the many?"

Hope tilted up her head to look at her, "Is this normal pillow talk for you?" She almost laughed.

"Isn't it for you?" Hope caught a soft smirk on her face, but Maria didn't look too her, her eyes were glued onto the ceiling.

"Moral philosophy?" Hope smiled as she sunk her head comfortably back onto Maria's shoulder, where she then answered sarcastically, "Oh yeah, totally."

"So would you?" Maria repeated her question.

"Pull the lever?" Hope thought it over for a moment, "I honestly don't know."

"What if that one person on the other side had a knife, so there was a chance they could cut themselves free?" Maria changed up the scenario, but her question came so seriously. "Would you pull the lever then?"

"Maybe," Hope shook her head, not really concerned about the question itself, but as to why it was being asked, as she pushed up onto her elbow so that her head was over top of Maria's. "But seriously, what's got you thinking about this?" Hope studied her troubled looking face.

"Nothing," she shook her head, "it's nothing. Nevermind." She then placed her hand to Hope's shoulder, where she then gently shifted her away as she sat up in bed. "I should get going."

Hope's heart dropped in hearing her words as she silently watched Maria throw her feet off the side of the bed, as she grabbed at her discarded clothing; pulling them on as she got dressed.

Their roles were reversed from the last time they'd been in that situation, now Hope was the one who had to watch her leave, and it was excruciating. Especially because Maria had kept letting these little indications slip, whether they were a grave look in her eyes, a loaded kiss, or an odd choice of words; but they were really beginning to scare her.

"Maria," Hope crawled over to the woman who was yanking on her shoe, which was her final piece of clothing. Maria turned to her instantly as she pulled her into her arms. "Please tell me that you're--" but before she could finish asking her if she was going to be alright and come back to her, Maria had leaned in to capture her lips.

Maria kissed her like Hope had dreaded, like she were being kissed for the last time. After a moment she'd felt wetness on her face. At first she'd thought she'd been crying and not noticed it, but she'd soon realised that they weren't her tears, they were Maria's. In discovering this, Hope instantly tightened her hold around the woman as she pushed harder into their kiss.

Maria eventually pulled away where she then focused her wet eyes onto Hope while saying, "Stay safe. You have many resources, use them," and with that Maria stood up and exited the room, not stopping to look back, nor say goodbye to her.

Hope then brought her hands to her face as she started to weep into them. She didn't know what was going on, but she had a feeling that something really bad was about to happen to Maria, and that they were both in trouble, which had utterly terrified her and shook her to the core.


	18. Eighteenth

Hope was lost in thought that morning as she was working her biceps at the weight machine, which was located inside their lab's gym. Her mind was fixed on Maria, as it often had been. Ever since their parting, three days prior, Hope had a dark cloud looming over her head. She had it in her brain that she was going to get a phone call to inform her that Maria had been killed in the field, or if not that, something else almost as horrible. It was to the point that every time her phone rang, her heart would jump.

The Avenger was then quickly pulled out of her thoughts when Scott interrupted her silence when he'd loudly stumbled out of the elevator, in a rushed mess.

"You're late," Hope called out to him, addressing his tardiness. Their morning training was set to begin a half hour ago.

"Yeah, sorry," he hurried in, "I had to go get my gym bag," he dropped the mention item on the ground next to their sparring mat.

"Go get it?" Hope stood up from the equipment, "from where?" She slowly started making her way over towards him.

He sheepishly looked down, "home," he answered while; unzipping his duffle.

Hope's curiosity got a hold of her as she asked with a hint of excitement, "did you not sleep at your house last night?"

She'd genuinely wished that he'd spent the night with someone; not only because she'd loved him and wanted him to find happiness in a partner, but also because, deep down, she still held some guilt from their break up. Even despite him showing both her and Maria nothing but support, she'd not quite felt entirely comfortable in discussing their relationship with him, or showing her love for Maria in front of him; scared that she'd hurt his feelings. However, she hoped, that if he'd found love, it would ease her conscious.

Scott shook his head as if he were trying to come across as if it were nothing, "I just crashed at Maggie's."

Hope crossed her arms while she studied him intently, "what do you mean'you crashed at Maggie's'?"

He looked up from his bag, his workout shirt and sweatpants in hand, "why are you looking at me like that?"

Her thoughts were already focusing back to when she'd last seen Scott interacting with Maggie and Paxton, and the odd way they were acting around each other. "What time did you go home after Cassie's party the other night?" She began prodding him.

He awkwardly started swinging the clothes in his hand as he muttered under his breath, "I --ah-- may have crashed at their place then too."

"Scott?" She threw her hands upwards as if she were begging for him to spill.

"Okay, okay, I'll tell you," he nervously blurted. "I've kinda sorta started seeing them."

"Them?"

"Maggie and Paxton, okay?"

"What?" She gasped through a smile of shocked intrigue.

"What? What?" It was now his thurn to throw his hands out to his sides; his gym clothes flapping along with.

"'What',as in, you're going to have to give me a little more information here," she stepped closer to him; a smile on her face as she was desperate for clarification.

"I don't know how it happened, alright?" He exclaimed as he began pacing the floor in front of her, "We were having drinks that night after the party, everyone was gone and Cassie was asleep, and then one thing lead to another."

Hope practically laughed out, "Oh my god!" In complete glee.

"I know!" He threw his hands down as he stilled himself in one spot.

"Paxton too?"

"He's a beautiful man, I couldn't help it! Don't judge me."

She shook her head, still in shock, "I'm not." She then wondered about his sexuality. Something that she'd speculated about before; it's not like he was ever shy in acknowledging his crushes on men. "But MaggieandPaxton," she harped on it again as she wanted to know if he'd identified as a bisexual like her, "so you're…"

"I don't know!"

"You don't know?"

"I don't know," He repeated again, "This is completely new for me," he said as if he were truly confused, "All I know is, people are pretty, and I like pretty people."

She smirked, "You and me both," while taking a step towards him, sliding her arm around his shoulder to reassure him. He smiled softly at her as he threw his arm around her too. "So," she cocked her head while studying him, "the three of you are all in a relationship then."

"I guess, yeah," he then stepped away from her before dropping his head; shaking it, "I think. I don't know, it's only happened twice," he then looked off into the distance, "three times," he corrected himself.

"What about Cassie? Does she know?" Hope was curious if the girl was aware that all three of her guardians were now an item.

"No," he shook his head. "We've been careful."

"You don't want to complicate things for her until you guys figure it out," Hope nodded in understanding.

"Yeah," he looked at her gently, like he were relieved by how she was responding to his news.

"Are you happy with them?" She asked softly.

He smiled before looking off to the side, like he was too embarrassed of his feelings to look her in the eye. "Yeah," he kept his gaze fixed on the heavy bag that hung from the rafters, "Maggie was my first love, she was my high school sweetheart. I always thought we'd be together forever," he huffed a suppressed chuckle, like he were in blissful realisation, "and now I suddenly have her back, and this time with this awesome guy too, who loves her probably just as much as I always have."

Hope had pure joy in her heart in hearing his words, which prompted her to step towards him and envelope him into a hug. "I'm so happy for you," she smiled.

"Thanks," he wrapped his arms around her; squeezing her back. "And like, no offense thought," he patted her back with his hand, "but I'm so glad that you and I broke up."

Hope then burst out laughing as she pulled away to look at him. "Are you saying that I couldn't have been the fourth in your guys' relationship?" She joked.

"No way, you'd be a terrible addition," he smirked, "you'd just constantly make us all feel inadequate while you compared us to Maria, who is clearly the epitome of perfection, in your eyes." She had to bite down a grin; he wasn't wrong, no one could hold a candle to Maria in her opinion. "And besides, I don't think Maggie swings towards the ladies."

"I don't know," Hope teased, "she seemed pretty taken by Maria's hotness."

"Pretty sure she called her stunning and not hot. There's a difference," he gently snapped his clothes at her hip where she giggled.

Suddenly the elevator doors opened and Janet called urgently from the lift, "Hope! Scott! Something's happening. The Avenger's tower was just hit."

"What?" Hope gasped, her lighthearted mood now completely gone. "What do you mean, it was hit?"

Janet didn't answer her question, instead she'd waved them over, "come upstairs, quick!"

Scott moved to her where Hope speedily ran to her phone, grabbing it from the side of the room, before making haste for the elevator, her head already in a frenzy; her fears evidently coming true.

Soon they were in her parent's former apartment, which they currently used as a break area. Hank was already standing in front of the large flat screen that was showing news coverage of a toppled building that was on fire.

"What the...?" Hope belined it to the T.V., studying the image; it was definitely the Avengers Tower, now in shambles. Her heart pounded so hard that she could hear it echoing inside of her ears; all she could think of was Maria, and how she hoped to god that she wasn't in the building when it was hit. Hope eventually found her voice again as she asked, "survivours?"

"They interviewed Stark," her dad answered, "he said they had enough warning to successfully evacuated the building." Hope sighed in relief.

"You think it was the self destruct again?" Scott asked her.

"Maybe," Hope said as she started going through her contacts on her phone; selecting the one number that they were given after joining the Avengers.

When the phone started dialing, she put it on speaker so that Scott could hear it too. After a few rings they heard Natasha's voice, "Hope, I was just about to contact you guys."

Hope responded, "What's going on?"

"Not here. Our phone call may be compromised," the agent explained. "At fifteen hundred we'll meet you guys at the place where you and Sleepyhead had your first pillow party at." Hope instantly knew that she was talking about the house where her and Maria had been intimate in. "And, as a precaution, make sure you move your lab to another location." Before Hope could reply, Natasha had hung up on her.

"Wait, where are we meeting?" Scott asked her in complete confusion.

"A house just North of Santa Rosa."

"Oh god, I just got that reference," Hank muttered in complete disgust; clearly realising what his daughter had done that evening at her rendezvous with Maria those few months back.

Hope ignored her father as she turned to her mother, "you guys should just shrink the lab and lock it inside the house vault," she referenced her childhood home, the one that her parents had been living in ever since S.H.I.E.L.D. had guaranteed them their freedom; granting them safety so that they could come out of hiding. Her mother nodded in response before Hope turned to Scott, "I'm going to go pack a bag, you might as well go home and do the same. I'll pick you up from your place at two o'clock, or shortly beforehand, and drive us up state."

"Why did she mention the lab?" Scott's mind seemed to still be on the latter part of Natasha's message, as he asked in concern, "Should I be worried about my family?"

Hope shook her head, "I don't know," as her mind started racing; trying to figure out what was going on.

Janet then suggested, "How about your family stay with us?"

"Yeah, we've got the resources they don't," Hank agreed, which made Hope suddenly recall back to when Maria had told her that she had many resources, and to use them.

"Really?" Scott seemed relieved, "that would be great, thank you," he looked back and forth between her parents with gratitude written all over his face.

As according to plan, Scott had gotten his family to report to the Pyms, where Paxton, who was a police officer, was insistent that he'd defend both his family and Hope's, if need be. Though, in all honesty, Hope had felt that their families would be relatively safe together mostly because of her dad, who had a knack for hiding.

It was quarter to three when Hope had pulled up the empty driveway of the familiar modern house, which was surrounded by trees, with Scott next to her in the passenger seat. They found the house unlocked, but when they did a quick search of the interior, they discovered it to be empty; they'd been the first to arrive, which made sense since they were still a little early.

After they realised they were the only ones there, Scott collapsed onto the sofa, "well I guess we wait," he sighed.

Hope nodded, but instead of sitting down next to him, she stepped to the carpet in front of the fireplace; looking down as she reminisced over the fight that Maria and her had which ended in their first kiss, right there on that very spot on the floor. Even now, Hope couldn't believe that Maria had allowed her to kiss her that day. That she'd accepted her instantly, and then proceeded to take her right back after their time spent apart.

Hope brought her hand up to her mouth where she started biting her fingernails; a bad habit that she'd long outgrown and only seemed to do in the tensist of situations. Though, admittedly, those situations were starting to become more frequent in life. She had such a bad feeling, like she'd been experiencing over the past few days, but now significantly worse. She felt so certain that Maria wasn't going to show up to the house; that she was off in a horrible situation of her own.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Scott's voice brought her out of her head.

"Huh?" She looked over to him.

"You alright over there?" He asked softly.

She didn't get the chance to respond to his question for that her attention was ripped away by the sound of tires coming up the drive. They looked out the window to see Tony pulling up, where he was soon exiting his car with Clint, Sam, and Bruce, who were his passengers.

Just as the foursome reached the door, a motorbike revved towards the building with another car tailing it. As the boys entered the house, Hope saw that it was Natasha on the bike and Steve in the other car.

Soon everyone was piled into the living room where greetings were short and quick. Clint was the first to bring their meeting into session as he asked the first question, "Why are we meeting here?" As the group organically started to form a circle around the floor.

Natasha placed her helmet atop the coffee table as she addressed the question, "because most of our safehouses got hit."

The mood in the room quickly turned serious as Clint followed up, "were there any casualties?"

"Yes," Natasha said gravely. "I mean, as far as I can guess. It's not like we're firing on all cylinders here; I can only keep track of so much in this current state."

"So," Tony looked about the room, "why is this place still standing."

"It's not S.H.I.E.L.D.'s," Natasha explained, "It belongs to one of my contacts. One with no relations to the agency."

"Who?" Tony asked.

"Never you mind," she said almost coyly, which seemed to be her default tone when she communicated.

"Guys," Bruce interjected, like he were annoyed that they weren't getting to the important topic at hand, "what is happening?"

Steve took a deep breath before he announced to the room, "S.H.I.E.L.D. has been completely infiltrated." Hope gulped, while she could feel the atmosphere in the room shift. She swore that she could hear pure anxiety in the exhales of her teammates.

"Many of our bases have either been destroyed or taken over," Natasha started to fill them in, "DC's headquarters being the largest one that's been commandeered by them, according to my sources."

"By who?" Bruce asked.

"A.I.M." Steve declared.

"Did they get this intel from the Avengers tower?" Scott piped up, "Did we get hacked after all?"

"No," Natasha shook her head, "this runs so much deeper than any file in that system. They're hitting places that don't even exist according to records."

"It sounds more like they have a spy in our agency," Sam suggested.

"They'd have to have access to our most secure intel," Clint addressed his speculation, "like someone with high clearance."

Sam nodded, "Someone at the top."

"Where's Fury?" Bruce asked, "what's he got to say about all this?"

"I've been trying to contact him since the attacks," Natasha sighed, "but so far, no luck."

"Do you think they got to him?" Bruce seemed agitated as he asked.

"I don't know," Natasha shook her head.

Sam then wondered aloud, "what about Maria?"

"She's been off the radar for over two weeks now," Natasha rubbed at her temple, "she's even missed her last three check-ins."

Hope cocked her head in confusion, but before she could say anything, Scott had done it for her. "What?" Her partner sounded just as baffled as she felt, "we literally just saw her on Saturday."

"Come again?" Natasha stared them down like she were even more perplexed than they were.

"Yeah, she came to my kid's birthday party."

"She what?" Natasha almost snapped before settling herself as she followed up with, "did she say anything?"

"Ah," Scott looked around the room, as if he were suddenly aware of all the eyes on him, "she asked for tofu instead of chicken?" He said nervously.

Natash gave him a look of annoyance before shifting her gaze over to his partner, "Hope?" But Hope was lost in reflection; reminiscing over her time with Maria that Saturday. The commander was indeed acting peculiar that evening, but Hope still didn't know exactly why. "She said something, didn't she?" Natasha interrupted her thoughts as she studied her.

"No," Hope said in a small voice, though her attention soon went to their discussion revolving around moral dilemmas, which made her rethink her answer. "I don't know," Hope shook her head.

Natash said softly, as if she could read her mind, "it's what she didn't say."

"Yeah," Hope slowly nodded. "I think she knew this was going to happen."

"So, what are you saying," Tony jumped in, "Maria was privy to this information and didn't think to warn us? Why would she do that?" He put his arms out, palms facing upwards, "Huh?"

"Because she's with them!" The room turned to see a woman with long blonde hair, waltz into the house.

"Sharon," Steve addressed the new arrival like he'd known her well. "You look rough," he said taking in her disheveled appearance.

"Yeah," she snapped at him, "thanks to the fact that I barely escaped headquarters with my life --you know-- after my own fucking commander tried to have me killed by a bunch of A.I.M. goons."

"What?" Steve's jaw fell open.

"Oh yeah," Sharon nodded as she said spitefully, "Hill is working for A.I.M. now." Her statement hit Hope like a ton of bricks; as she could feel her breath falling shorter.

"Okay, that literally makes no sense," Steve put up his hand as if he were trying to stop her accusations, "Maria would never betray us. She's like the personification of loyalty."

"Yeah?" Sharon lifted an eyebrow at him, "well she certainly showed her loyalties as she ambushed me and Fury, and then proceeded to take him as a hostage for a terrorist organisation," she spat at him.

Steve was dumbfounded, completely without words, until Clint broke the silence, as he'd suggested an explanation, "mind control?"

Scott acknowledge his idea, "she definitely seemed herself when we last saw her."

"Advanced mind control?" Clint timidly shrugged his shoulders, like he didn't quite believe that as a viable answer.

Hope thought on how Maria was that last evening, how so completely intimate she'd been, how entirely herself she was, even with the secret that she'd obviously been keeping. "No," Hope said quietly; shaking her head before she looked up to the room. "She wasn't under mind control," she said with purpose as she was suddenly holding back tears.

Natasha nodded sympathetically to her before she suggested to the room, "maybe she's infiltrating them."

"That's what I first thought too," Sharon said, "until the moment Strucker," who Hope new to be the leader of A.I.M., "had ordered for two of his men to kill me." Sharon then forcefully pointed her finger in the air, "and Hill told him to send two more men in to do the job, because --and I quote-- I have a tendency to get a little feisty," The woman threw her hand out to her side, "Then she turned and walked out of the room with him and their men --you know-- minus my four executioners, like it was absolutely nothing to her." She then muttered under her breath, "luckily those A.I.M. hacks weren't trained for shit." She made it sound like she'd easily enough gotten the upper hand on the four men.

Steve looked to Sharon like he were genuinely appalled by the situation she'd been in, yet still seemed like he couldn't quite come to grips with her story. "This doesn't make any sense," the captain dug his fingertips into the skin at his forehead.

Sharon sighed, her anger seemingly coming down as she spoke in a calmer manner, "It might not make sense, but, unfortunately, this is our current situation." She then scanned the room, making a connection with the rest of the Avengers, "our Director is presently a hostage, assuming he's still alive, and A.I.M. has access to an inordinate amount of extremely sensitive information with Hill in their services."

"Well," Tony asked, "what are we supposed to do about this? What now?"

The room went silent, where everyone darted their eyes around; hoping that someone had a brilliant suggestion. Eventually it was Scott who'd spoken up as he said, "we do nothing."

"What?" Natasha looked to him in befuddlement.

"We wait and do nothing," Scott came again.

"Are you insane?" Sharon looked to him like he was a complete moron.

"What is it that Maria said when she was solving that impossible puzzle?" Scott looked over to Hope, "Something about when you focus on the individual steps, independent of the system, they might seem counterintuitive, it's not until you look at the problem as a whole, that you can find your solution." He then addressed the room, "what if all this horrible stuff that's happening is just a single step, one that seems counterintuitive, but is necessary for a bigger plan?"

"A bigger plan?" Sharon crossed her arms, "as in allowing A.I.M. to terrorise the planet?"

"No, I was thinking of something good," Scott used this hands like he was pushing her suggestion away, "like the opposite of what you just said."

The blonde glared at him until Steve had spoken up. "We can't just, on good faith, ignore this," the Captain sighed, "As much as I need to believe that Maria is still somehow on our side, we can't risk the well being of the masses based off these hopes."

"She's already responsible for dozens of deaths as it stands, our own people's, nonetheless." Sharon nodded, yet her tone came a little softer, and a lot sadder, "No matter how you want to look at it, she's got innocent blood on her hands."

The woman's words were too much as Hope suddenly couldn't catch her breath, while her heart pounded in her chest. "I'll be right back," she quickly muttered, as she excused herself and speedily exited the house; desperate for fresh air.

When she got outside she threw her hands on top of her hips as she tried to catch her breath, while her feet took her towards the side of the house and towards the treeline. She caught sight of a path in the forest, where she quickly moved to it. She walked through it for about a minute until she found a large boulder, where she collapsed on top of it, putting her head between her legs as she slowly regulated her breathing.

She had such strong emotions coursing through her body that they were giving her the urge to puke. Maria had betrayed them, she'd bettered her, and yet, for some reason, she didn't feel betrayed, all she felt was scared. Scared for Maria in her ghastly fucked up situation that she found herself at the centre of.

Hope looked up, past the tree tops as she realised that she'd agreed with Steve, that this didn't make any sense, it wasn't adding up, and she'd be damned if she'd just give up on Maria, even though her heart was breaking in that moment. She needed for Maria to pull through and prove that her horrific actions were somehow justified, or Hope would completely crumble; with no chance of recovery.


	19. Nineteenth

Maria's eyes darted to the side, finding the A.I.M. agent, who was a single desk over from her, still preoccupied, as his attention was towards the monitor in front of him. The Commander then focused back onto the screen before her, wishing that it would process faster. She should have completed this task much earlier, but failed to find an opportune moment to do so.

"Ah, there you are, Commander," Baron Strucker, leader of A.I.M., said as he wandered into the operations room, located inside the organisation's largest base, which lay just outside of Washington D.C.

Maria quickly minimised the window of the webpage that she was on, taking a sharp breath in reaction to the man's entrance.

"God, this cesspool of a planet truly deserves what's coming for it. Blow up a symbol of freedom and the first thing these foolish people do is, blame those who are the most starved for what that symbol stands for." The man said, as he approached her; his eyes focused upwards upon the large screen on the wall that was currently tuned to the national news. "I do love the way you think, Commander," his gaze fell to her, a smirk on his face, "your suggestion to target her was brilliant," be pointed to the television. "Watching these simpletons lose their goddamn minds over the attack, truly assures us that we're about to do these people a favour." Maria simply nodded at the man, where he eyed her in intrigue. "Though, I can't say that you look as pleased as I'd expected. You're not having second thoughts now, are you?"

"On the contrary, I've never been so glad to not be on the other side of all of this," she calmly responded. "I've wasted too many years putting out fires caused by these people, only for ten more to take its place. Finally I get to stop running in circles trying to help them," her justification flowed so easily out of her mouth, "You cannot help the willfully ignorant."

"And that's why you're going to be one of the few survivors in the end," he smiled at her like he was so genuinely pleased by her answer. "Eradicate the weak, and we'll finally be strong." He nodded, "But I obviously don't need to explain this to you. You showed your understanding of this when you disposed of Fury." Maria gulped. "He was a pathetic man, trying to keep you suppressed, so clearly scared of your potential." He took a step closer to her, entering into her personal space. "Now, what I need from you, Commander, is for you to understand that I'll never hold you back. You will always be free to flourish here."

"Thank you, Sir."

"Ah-uh, I'm not your sir." He wagged his finger in her face. "We're equals in this."

Maria's eyes were pulled into his strong gaze as she bowed her head, "thank you, Strucker."

"No," he smiled, "thank you, Commander." He then turned and walked away, leaving Maria to listen to the news, which was still covering the event that she was personally responsible for. She was then quick to open her webpage once again, relieved to see that it'd finished; where she speedily logging off before closing her tabs. She looked back up to the television, grinding her teeth in anticipation of what was about to unfold.

* * *

Once they realised that Maria was working for A.I.M. the team moved locations, since the commander knew of the house's wearabouts. The chances of the woman acting on the knowledge of the house's position was extremely slim, since she didn't hit the place during their initial strikes, but they wanted to err on the side of caution, so they settled at a cabin that they'd found online for rent, just fifteen kilometers away from where they had previously been; using it as a temporary headquarters.

It had been nearly a full day since the initial attacks, and within that time, Agent Carter was sent out on a reconnaissance mission, along with the few other agents that they were able to contact. Natasha was acting second to Coulson, who was communicating to her via a secure line, from a secure location in New York. The rest of the Avengers were all still anxiously awaiting on more intel so a plan could be made, followed by a go ahead from Natasha, to do something.

For the entire time they'd been at that cottage, Hope had been an unresponsive wall. The night before, Scott had tried talking to her, but she'd cut him off; not even allowing him to begin before she sent him away; essentially forcing him to retire for the evening into one of the bedrooms in the cabin. She genuinely couldn't process her thoughts and feelings, so she'd temporarily shut down and detached herself from those around her.

It was the early morning as a sleepless Hope had found herself atop of the hood of her S.U.V. that was parked in the gravel driveway. She was laying back against the windscreen, looking up at the blue sky, when she heard the front door of the large cabin swing open. Hope rolled her head to the side to spot Natasha standing just outside the entrance, running her hands through her hair; taking in a deep breath of fresh air. It didn't take long for the tired looking spy to notice Hope, where she then slowly started to wander over to her.

Natasha didn't say a word as she'd climbed up on top of the hood, and made herself comfortable right beside Hope, mimicking her body position.

For the hours that Hope had intentionally isolated herself, she was surprisingly glad to have Natasha next to her in that moment. She was the only person who both knew Maria well, and had a good understanding of Hope's relationship to the Commander; hoping that the agent could somehow ease her anxieties in any way.

The two silently looked up at the clouds for awhile before Hope asked, not taking her eyes off the sky, "so, do we have a plan of action yet?"

Natasha sighed, "God, I wish." The woman's answer made Hope sigh as well; feeling more downtrodden by the agent's exhausted state. "This really isn't my forte," Natasha continued, "I collect information, I don't derive plans, especially not ones of this magnitude."

Hope nodded in understanding before she wondered out loud, "how about Agent Coulson?"

"He's decent enough at operations, he's just no…" her words trailed off like she didn't have the heart to finish her sentence.

"He's no Fury or Maria," Hope said softly.

Natasha responded in a similar tone, "yeah."

They continued to silently gaze up at the sky together for a little longer before Natasha spoke up, "So, I really shouldn't be the one to tell you this, but I feel like you could benefit from hearing it."

Hope turned to look at the woman in confusion, "from what?"

Natasha kept her gaze upwards, as she seemed hesitant to continue. "Back when Maria was in the marines, I believe she was a Sergeant --or something like that-- at that time, her --ah--" the redhead now really seemed conflicted as she timidly pressed forward, "her C.O. tried to force himself onto her."

"What?" Hope snapped while she instantly felt anger flowing through her veins.

Natash looked to her with a soft smirk, "He --of course-- didn't get very far before she decked him in the face," she said, seemingly reacting to Hope's excited outburst; trying to ease her worry, which admittedly helped. She was relieved to hear that she successfully defended herself, but was still pissed to know that someone still violated her. "But after the incident he threatened her; telling her if she reported him, he'd sabotage her career." Natasha continued, "so she kept her mouth shut." All Hope could do is shake her head in response to the injustice she was hearing. "Until --that is-- it came to her attention he'd raped two other women in his platoon." Natasha then slowly sat upright, hanging her legs over the front grill, as she looked over her shoulder to Hope, "That was her breaking point," she then looked off into the distance, "from then on she did everything in her power to advocate for those women, and he did exactly what he'd said he'd do. He claimed she was mentally unstable, and got her demoted on account of false accusations."

"My god," Hope muttered as she too then sat up.

"Yeah, but even after that, she kept going after him," Natasha focused her gaze back onto her, "she never stopped fighting for the safety of her fellow service women. She told me she was prepared to go until one of them got discharged. Luckily, after a long ordeal, he was the one who was reprimanded. But by that point, her exemplary reputation was completely tarnished," Natasha shook her head, "She sacrificed her promising career for the wellbeing of others." She stared into Hope's eyes as she said with purpose, "That's her very nature. To protect."

Hope slowly nodded, not surprised in the least by Maria's actions, as she added, "to protect as she flies a helicopter into a missile to keep us all safe."

"Or goes against her Director's orders and not deliver your quantum bridge to Oscorp."

"Norman Osborn wanted our bridge?" Hope was shocked to hear that that was who was after their technology.

"Yeah, but Maria wasn't having any of that. That could've been a security risk." Natasha shook her head, "Osborn isn't exactly one who operates with the best of intentions."

Hope suddenly felt as if she got punched in the gut. Maria had told her that she concealed the bridge because it wasn't S.H.I.E.L.D.'s, it was theirs, but now it sounded like she only did it because she didn't trust Osborn. "That's why you guys hid us from S.H.I.E.L.D," Hope dropped her gaze, "Better us than Norman."

"No, not exactly." Natasha shifted in her seat, "See, under normal circumstances it wouldn't necessarily have been you guys either." Hope's head snapped up to look at her in curiosity. "Yes, you would still have possession of the bridge, but Maria would've kept an eye on it as an unofficial asset of S.H.I.E.L.D, ready to be commandeered if need be," Natasha intently studied her face, "but she didn't do that. She turned a blind eye; truly setting your asset free of the agency," the redhead smirked, "which is unheard of."

Hope shook her head as she asked ever so quietly, "Why would she do that?"

Natasha cocked her head to the side and looked at her like she was being purposely obtuse. "I had eyes and ears on the two of you at both the restaurant and the park." Hope wasn't expecting to hear that the spy was monitoring them, and yet wasn't terribly surprised by it either. "And I have to say," Natasha raised a brow, "I've never seen Maria like that. The way she dropped her guard down," Natasha shook her head and spoke in a way that made it seem like she still couldn't quite grasp it, "she literally told you about being kicked out of her house as a teen for being gay. It took five years of friendship before she told me that, and she told you after like five minutes into your first conversation." The spy then looked out into the distance, her words came as if she were speaking out of realisations, "she trusted you so completely right from the start," Natasha turned back to her, softly shaking her head, "She was so completely yours right from the start." Hope gulped as her eyes started tearing up; overwhelmed by the woman's words. "That's why, even now, after you guys have made it abundantly clear to Fury that your bridge still exists, S.H.I.E.L.D. remains unassociated with it." the agent nodded, "Maria made sure to that."

Hope looked out to the treeline, quickly wiping her eyes, feeling like she was being assaulted by all these contrasting emotions. "So," she forced herself to be present in the conversation, "Fury now knows that you and Maria were the ones to fake blow up our lab then?"

"Pretty sure he suspected us from the get go, but has never brought it up." Hope was confused by the woman's response as she looked over to her, about to ask for her to clarify, but the agent continued; clearly noticing her puzzlement. "Fury and Maria sort of have this understanding. If something suspiciously…," she cocked her head as if she were searching for the right word, "positive," she settled on her vocabulary, "happens for some unknown reason, he doesn't ask."

Hope studied her face for a moment before saying, "You think she's still on our side, don't you?"

Natasha took in a long breath before she sighed, "I sure hope she is. That woman has the knowledge and the intelligence to take over the world if she wanted to."

"If you're not sure about her, why did you tell me all that stuff about her protective nature?"

Natasha took a moment before she said in a small voice, "maybe I needed an audience to remind myself who my best friend is," she then bore her gaze into Hope's. "An audience who --I believe-- sees her with a clarity that may even eclipse my own."

Hope dropped her eyes, bringing her foot up on top of the hood, pulling her knee into her chest, as she began uncomfortably playing with the laces of her shoe. "Do you think you'll be able to forgive her for all the bloodshed that she's already responsible for?" She asked ever so softly.

"Are you asking me this, or are you asking yourself?"

Hope dropped her forehead to her knee, conceding to Natasha's astute question; Hope really was searching for an answer for herself. However, it really didn't take long for her to come to a conclusion, right then and there, which was rather startling to her. "What if I'm too far gone?" Hope was thinking on just how much she'd loved Maria; acknowledging the fact that she still had full faith in her. "And I was ready to stand by her actions no matter what, regardless of the morality of them?"

"You know, I've been feeling very much inside the Twilight Zone these past twenty-four hours, but picturing you and Maria'Bonnie-and-Clyde-ing'it while throwing your sense of right and wrong to the wind, is really pushing me over the edge here." Hope looked over to the agent who seemed to be concealing a chuckle.

Hope couldn't help but smirk a little as she realised just how stupid her question was, "okay, when you put it that way it really does sound rediculus."

"Because it is. And do you know why it is?"

"Because that's not us."

Natasha's smile grew in response before she looked off towards the trees again, "There's a reason Maria's doing this, and morality has everything to do with it, and you know this. That's why you feel like you can stand by her no matter what," she shifted her eyes back to her, "not because you're too far gone, but because you know you can trust her actions to be righteously justified." She then smirked to herself as if she were recalling something, "loyalty doesn't have to come with a blindfold." She then fell back onto the windscreen as she huffed, "which makes me realise that I'd like to change my answer."

Hope turned back to look at her, "what answer?"

"That I'm not sure if she's on our side or not." Hope felt a smile growing on her own face, glad that she wasn't alone in keeping faith in Maria, as Natasha continued, "I'm sure she's on our side. She's protecting something, she's gotta be," her tone shifted to annoyance as she growled through a clenched jaw, "and I could just slap her for not letting me know what it is."

But right before Hope had a chance to respond, a flash of light came from the sky, crashing down a little ways away hitting a clearing in the grass, making Hope jump in her seat. Suddenly Thor was standing before them in a smoking circle in the lawn.

Natasha sat up again as Thor made his way to them. "I received your message," the man said. "Mjolnir and I are ready to assist you in these trying times."

"Well, we're not exactly ready for you and your magic hammer right at this moment," Natasha said while sliding down off of the vehicle to the ground. "But thanks for answering the call. I know you're not always the best at that."

"Truly remarkable," he dropped his head, muttering, "even in Maria's absence, I'm still scorned over not responding to messages with enough haste."

Sam then ripped open the front door of the cottage; quickly noting the trio standing there before he called out, "The Statue of Liberty was just hit!"

"What?" Natasha gawked.

"Yeah, not the whole thing, just the torch," Sam continued.

"Was it them?" Hope asked, wondering if it was A.I.M.

"What would be the chances that it's not?" Natasha said as she started towards the cabin, "If you ask me, it seems like they're sending a message."

"That they don't like torches?" Thor asked in complete confusion, as he followed Natasha, with Hope in tow, "or statues?"

"Probably, more like, they don't like liberty enlightening the world," Sam suggested as he held the door open for the three, "That's what the torch symbolises. It lights the way to freedom showing us the path of liberty," he said as if he were reciting a fifth grade social studies report on the statue. "Though --of course-- the media is speculating that it's a Muslim terrorist attack." The man justifiably griped, "Because, heaven forbid their racist asses would ever suspect a bunch of power hungry white terrorists operating from, right here, in the U.S.A." Just as Thor passed by, he sympathetically patted Sam on the shoulder as the man sighed before he greeted the Asgardian with a smile, "good to see you, man." Thor softly smiled back at him; as he seemed to recognise his stressed condition.

Inside they passed through a sunroom that entered into the large common area, where five bedrooms, the kitchen, and the washroom, all met at. There was a flat screen on the wall which was presenting the news as they were broadcasting from Liberty Island, showing the statue with her hand blown off. Everyone was gathered around, with Tony being the only one not watching the coverage; he was too preoccupied with his head in his laptop screen, which was sitting on top of the dining room table.

"This has gone too far," Steve spoke up, "it's no longer about S.H.I.E.L.D. Now they're attacking out in the public. We have to do something."

"Yeah, because my tower being destroyed wasn't enough for you?" Tony addressed him in annoyance, "but now that we have an amputee statue, you're ready to go?"

Steve huffed, "look, I know the tower was a great loss to you but--"

"No, no, no," Tony interrupted him, "not only the tower, but my lab, my suits, my cars, but what do you know? All you lost was --what?-- your white t-shirt collection that were all two sizes too small?"

"You're really asking me whatI'velost?"

"Oh, we're not even talking about your past, but yet you never fail to bring it up. You fall asleep on some ice and now because of it no one else is allowed to have any problems."

"I have never once implied that"

"You just did."

Suddenly a phone started to ring from one of the rooms, interrupting Steve and Tony's quarrel.

"Who's phone is that?" Natasha asked with concern, as she muted the T.V. "No one's supposed to have cell phones, they can be tracked."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Scott blurted as he hurried to his bedroom, digging through the bag that was ringing, which was located right inside the doorway, as he explained, "It's my daughter," he pulled out the phone, "she knows to only call in case of an emergency, and we picked up new phones yesterday, so we should be fine." Before anyone could comment, the man quickly answered his mobile, with obvious concern written all over his face. "Hey, Peanut, is everything alright? Are you guys safe?"

"Yes, we're fine." They could all hear the girl on the other side of the video chat.

Scott sighed in relief before he started to gently scold her, "Now, Cassie, you can't just call me unless--"

"It's important!" The girl cut him off, "The Statue of Liberty lost her torch."

"Yes, we know, and as much as that's a big deal, it's still not a personal emergency."

"It's the signal!" The girl came excitedly.

"What?"

"Commander Maria's signal."

Scott's head instantly jerked up to look at Hope, as the woman's heart started to pound. He then quickly came away from the threshold of his room to rejoin the group, as he gazed back to his mobile; asking, "signal for what?"

"When the Statue of Liberty loses her torch I have to tell you, to tell Agent Barton, to check his Neopets account," Cassie said as if she'd rehearsed those words a hundred times over. "Commander Maria said it was extremely important that I carry out these orders and tell you this as A-SAP as possible after the signal."

The whole room turned to Clint as Sam said in a judgmental tone, "I know this is so far removed from the importance of this situation, but dude, you have a Neopets account?"

"Maria has one too," he shot back defensively as he made his way to the computer that Tony was at, "we were living out our tamagotchi nostalgia, okay?"

Scott then asked his daughter, "was there anything else Maria told you?"

"Ordered me," Cassie corrected him.

"Yes, yes, of course. Ordered you?" He changed his vocabulary.

"No, that was everything," she said proudly.

"Okay," he smiled at her, "thank you, you did a good job completing your mission, Agent Lang, but I have to get going now."

"Okay. Love you, Daddy!" The girl practically cheered, as she seemed so excited to have delivered Maria's top secret message.

"Love you too, Peanut," he blew a kiss at her before hanging up.

"Finally," Tony huffed as he moved out of the way for Clint, "a competent agent," he said as if he were deadly serious and instantly taken by the girl.

"Your computer's not networked with anything sensitive right now, is it?" Clint asked Tony.

"No, it's fine," he assured him.

Hope started biting at her nails as the room fell silent, waiting on Clint to open his online account. "I have a message here in my account inbox, it looks weird though."

"Let me see," Tony shoved in beside him. After a moment he said, "It's a data file… just give me a second," he muttered. It didn't take long before he said, "kay, here we go," and projected his monitor onto the large smart T.V. on the wall; the screen now showing a bunch of computer files. Tony started opening them where it was Natasha's turn to push him to the side and take over.

They stared at the screen as Natasha opened file after file. "My god," the spy muttered, "this is everything."

"She got into A.I.M.'s entire system," Clint said in awe.

Hope's body started vibrating as her eyes welled up.She was right. She wasn't crazy for keeping her trust in Maria.She was right. She knew that the love of her life would never betray them like that.She was right,she kept repeating in her head,she was right.

"Wait," Thor said with urgency, snapping Hope out of her head. "What was that?"

"What?" Natasha asked.

"Go back." The agent did as instructed, and clicked back to the file she'd previously opened. "There!" He walked up to the screen, "The Brood," he pointed to the text file with the mentioned heading.

"What's The Brood?" Hope asked, for the first time finding her voice amongst the group.

"Not'what'but,'who'. They are an insectoid alien race."

"Are they good? Bad? What?" Bruce asked.

"Bad," Thor said seriously, "really bad. They are a parasitical species. They find hosts and impregnate them with eggs. When the embryo is grown, the hosts becomes a Brood, and they are then effectively dead." Hope could feel her stomach churn in hearing the man's description. "I've seen entire planets fall to this race, planets that are far more advanced than this one."

"According to this file," Natasha said as she was studying the computer monitor, "A.I.M. has struck a deal…" she read on before continuing, "with --it sounds like-- their queen, to gain access to Earth by using the Shi'ar's Stargate technology."

"So, you're telling me that we're all at risk of becoming alien-bug moms?" Sam asked, clearly agitated.

"No one's becoming an alien bug-mom," Steve put his hands out in a calming gesture.

"How do we know they're not already here though?" Bruce asked.

"Yeah," Sam jumped back in, "there could be hosts already walking amongst the population."

"According to this," Natasha referenced the file that she was reading, "they're not here yet. The Stargate they're planning on using is still enroute."

"Good," Tony played with what looked like a stylist, flicking it in agitation. "I'm not ready for another alien invasion."

"None of us are," Steve said in a soft tone, which was a major shift from the last time he'd addressed Tony. "Now all we have to do is sift through all this information and come up with a plan to make sure they don't get here."

"We don't even have to do all that," Natasha came again; opening a file that was prominently labeled,Operation: Stop The Big Bad Bugs.

"Well, son of a gun," Steve muttered, looking over the detailed Avengers mission briefing which Maria had written up, that was now projected right before their eyes, "she really did it."

"She must have gotten word of what they were planning," Natasha said, "and figured the only way to extract all this information was to join them."

"Guess Lang was right all along," Sam said, "all we had to do was wait."

"You think Fury was in on it too?" Clint wondered out loud, practically cutting off Sam's comment.

"Probably," Tony said, "she doesn't move without his say so."

Clint turned to him, "you say that, but sometimes I wonder if that's not as true as we all suspect it to be."

Natasha and Hope shared a look, knowing of Maria's independent side, and how right Clint really was.

"Okay," Steve addressed the room. "let's stay focused on the briefing here. I say we read it out together from the top."

Everyone agreed, with not a single person questioning the validity of Maria's intel, nor thinking there was any ill intent behind it. Natasha was the one that read the report aloud; running the briefing on Maria's behalf.

Hope was so eager to learn and execute the Commander's plan, trying her best not to drown in her own fear as she fought against her anxieties in order to concentrate.

She was scared for her first mission, scared for the wellbeing of the entire planet, but most of all, she was scared of the position Maria was in; praying that she remained safe and that A.I.M. wouldn't discovered that she'd double crossed them. The fact that Maria was all alone behind enemy lines, made her want to kick their terrorist asses right then and with no hesitation. She desperately needed to find Maria to ensure that no harm would come upon her. Maria did her part, now it was Hope's turn to be the protector.


	20. Twentieth

"Strucker, Sir, we've got a connection. The wormhole is steady" an A.I.M. personnel, that could only be assumed to be a scientist, informed his superior whilst reading off of a monitor.

Hope, in her miniaturised form, peeked her uncovered head out from the air vent that she was presently hiding inside of. She leaned forward to catch a glimpse of the personal sized stargate, which was about twelve feet in diameter, that had a glowing event horizon like an amber puddle vertically spanning the surface of the triangular frame of its doorway. It sat in a large room with two storey high ceilings, which she was nearly at the hight of inside of her cover.

They had breached A.I.M.'s largest compound just outside of Washington D.C. and according to the files, that Maria had acquired from them, the organisation had access to two stargates, this small one, that Strucker had in his personal possessions, and a massive one, big enough to ferry large space vessels through, that they'd only just moved into Earth's orbit; wanting to transport the hoards of Brood vessels through it. The space gate was tasked to Tony, Bruce, and the Wakandan Space Program, headed by Shuri, with T'Challa leading aid. Their team was to infiltrate A.I.M.'s small clocked space station, that operated the gate, and get control of the asset, to make sure that it didn't turn on to become the bridge that would deliver Earth's demise.

The mission all seemed so larger than life to Hope, that she'd quickly come to the conclusion that she'd better not worry herself on what the other's tasks were, and to concentrate on her own.

"The gate's activated," Hope spoke in a low tone, into her communication device, as Scott took a step closer to look over her shoulder at the mentioned activity, him too in his miniaturised form, with Antany the VII, his insect mount, off a little ways behind them in the vent.

"Rodger," Natasha's voice emanated through her headset, acknowledging her. "I have visual of it now," she spoke from the compound's security room that she'd commandeered.

Suddenly there was a rippling disturbance in the gate's event horizon when a large, six limbed bug came crawling out. Hope instantly stiffened to the creature. It was hideous, with a huge, elongated head, and golden oval eyes that were without pupils. Their were also spikes down its back and at the joints of its limbs. Though, what had probably been the most menacing attribute about it was its large mouth, that had sharp dagger like teeth protruding out of its wet visible gums.

Soon came another brood through the gate, of a similar size to the first, where they probably both stood as tall as an elephant. The two looked about the room before they parted and faced each other, just as a third had arrived, but this one was seizable in comparison to the other two, needing to dip its head to fit through the threshold. The largest one also had a redder tone to its exoskeleton than the other two, who were a dark grey.

Strucker approached the largest brood, bowing his head as he said, "You're Majesty."

"You assured me that my ships would be here by now," The queen hissed; spit flying from her mouth, "but we cannot get a lock onto the gate that we have sent you."

"Yes," Strucker answered in what appeared to be both fear and nerves, "we're having a little trouble connecting with our relay station."

"You have lost control of our gate," she growled, her voice haunting in nature.

"No, no, I'm sure it's just a technical hiccup."

"Was that us?" Scott whispered into his headset from right beside Hope.

"It better be," Natasha responded.

"What do we do about these brood?" Hope asked Natasha, there team leader, as Strucker continued to assure the brood leader that he had everything under control. "I mean, this is the Queen."

"Our mission is to take in Strucker, not to engage with the aliens."

"But we have a real opportunity here to take out their leader."

"Those exoskeletons are thick. We didn't exactly come prepared with weapons for that."

"I could shrink her."

"Can you do it from your miniaturised form?"

"No."

"So you'd have to grow in front of them, shoot, and not just her, but the other two as well, all before one of them literally bites your head off?

Hope bit her lip, not taking into consideration the danger of it, but proceeded to answer with confidence, "yeah, pretty much."

"No way, I'm not letting you attempt that."

"I can do it."

"Yeah, and I can act as a distraction," Scott jumped in.

Natasha asked sarcastically, "what are you going to do, ask the brood to pick a card?"

"Hey, my magic tricks have worked on multiple occasions as a distraction method," he said in defence, yet his tone didn't sound bothered by her jab.

"Nat, we can do this," Hope came again.

"Maybe you can, but I'm not risking it. Besides, I'm sure she'll still be able to communicate with her hoard even while she's the size of an actual bug. Others might come flooding through that open gate" Just as Natasha finished her sentence, the wormhole connection had broken.

Hope tried for a third time, in seeing what had just transpired, "The gate's off! I could--"

"No. Just let it be." Natasha cut her off, "If the space gate is down, she won't be our problem. She'll leave and we'll make sure to deactivate this gate here so it can't connect to their end."

"But she'll be a problem out in the galaxy for other planets," she added, trying to convince her to let her engage.

"Our responsibility is to this planet."

The Queen suddenly screeched, pulling the Avengers' focus onto her once again, "Dial me back to my gate," she demanded while seeming unconvinced by Strucker's words, ready to leave him.

"I assure you, you will have Earth. I'll be it's deliverer as promised," Strucker pleaded.

The Queen then lunged at him, unhinging her large jaw as she chomping down on Strucker, severing him clean in half. She then tilted her head up, swallowing his upper body in one gulp.

"Holy crap," Scott gawked in reaction, where Hope took in a sharp inhale at the horrifying sight.

One of the other brood then went to the gate controls, where the scientist ran off, only to get a few steps away before it slashed at him, using the spikes on his leg as a weapon; blood flying against the wall as the man bodily crashed to the ground. The bug then dialed the gate, which opened the portal once again.

"Secure the compound," the queen hissed to the two. "Figure out where my space gate is." She then turned, with intentions of leaving through the portal, but Hope wasn't about to allow that.

The Avenger had an idea, and knew her opportunity was now or never. She then speedily activated her helmet and flew through the grates of the vent and downwards into the large room. Just as the Queen had taken a single stride through the event horizon, Hope grew to size, feet touching ground, as she shot her blaster, but not at the brood, instead she'd aimed for the gate itself. Instantly the triangular transported shrunk, and in the process, it crushed the queen in half; her backside collapsing on the ground in front of her.

Hope then turned to the side to see one of the, now reactionary, broods about to grab her with it's jaw, where she was quick to shoot it with her blaster, instantly shrinking it. But before she was able to get eyes on the other alien, it had struck her from behind, sending her flying; her armour protecting her greatly from the strike itself, but not so much from the landing as she smacked hard into the wall.

Just as she lifted her head, she saw the broods charging her, where she quickly shrank down. She tried to fly away but he was already on top of her as she desperately searched to find an opening to get out. To her rescue, the brood was ripped away from her, as she caught sight of Scott in his embiggened form, holding the creature by its back legs. She took the distraction to grow back to size as she watched the creature trying to turn in Scott's grasp, nipping aggressively at the air in god awful screeches.

Hope then lifted her arm, easily shooting the brood where it shrunk in size, before Hope collapsed her weight onto a nearby table, where the gate controls were, catching her breath from when the wind had been knocked out of her earlier, all while Scott took the opportunity to stomp on the two rat sized bugs that were scurrying about, which produced the loudest cracking sound that she was sure would stick with her forever.

"Damnit, Hope, you're even worse at listening to mission orders than I am," Natasha sounded slightly annoyed.

Hope deactivated her helmet as she huffed with a smile, "It worked, didn't it?"

"That last one nearly had you."

Her partner then shrunk down to size as he opened his helmet, where she smirked at him, "I knew Scott would have my back."

He gave her a lopsided smile as he nodded, "always." The man then looked to the disembodied terrorist. "So I guess we failed our first Avenger's mission. Unless taking in half of Strucker counts?" His gaze was locked on to the sight of the man's lower body, covered in blood and saliva, evidently only being able to stand the sight for a moment; quickly turning away in visible aversion to the gore. He then focused back onto Hope, "you alright?"

She stood up straight as she nodded, "yeah," with a satisfied smile, totally exhilarated by the experience; falling in love with the feeling of being on missions. She then turned to the scientist on the floor, her smile immediately falling, as she made her way over to check on him. "He needs medical treatment."

"We gotta get out of here," Natasha said, "Leave him. One of his own will have to deal with him." Hope sighed, understanding that they were still in a compound full of enemies, with no backup. "Now grab the stargate and get out."

"Yeah," Hope responded in understanding before she went and picked up the mentioned item that was now the size of a tea saucer, flicking off a hunk of green bug juice from it as she looked down to the goopy puddle that surrounded the dead bug; definitely having less issue in taking in the sight of her, over the one of Strucker's disembodiment.

"We might as well head over to Headquarters now, see if we can lend a hand there." The spy suggested, referring to the possibility of assisting the agents, the sweeper team, and the rest of the Avengers that were at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s main compound, who had been tasked in taking it back from A.I.M.s control. They were a mere fifteen minute Quinjet flight away from them, so it only made sense to go over there to help.

Hope unzipped the top of her suit to shove the miniaturised stargate inside of it, glad to change locations; hoping that she'd find Maria at the other compound, since she didn't seem to be where they were now. Hope closed up her suit before shrinking down and taking off towards the same air vent that they'd previously been inside of, with Scott, now too in his small form, not far behind her, mounted atop of his ant like a flying steed.

* * *

Maria closed her eyes, taking in a deep, sorrowful breath before fluttering them back open. She looked about the Operations Deck, the one she'd been on a hundred times before with her fellow coworkers bustling about, but now, it was eerily silent with about a dozen A.I.M. men lying dead on the floor, put their by hers truly, with the assistance of a flash grenade and her pistol.

She made sure that she was in the S.H.I.E.L.D. compound during the raid. She had wished to aid her people by allowing them access into the building, which she did from that very spot with the compound's controls at her fingertips.

The elevator chimed, where she heard the automated voice say 'operations'. The Commander turned to see at least ten men flooding out of the lift, fully equipment with full body armour, shields, and M4s, which were out and ready to fire. Behind them walked out Agent May, who assessed the space with haste, darting her eyes about, as her men poured onto the floor, securing the area; sweeping the room and checking to make sure that all the bodies on the ground were indeed not a threat.

The agent slowly walked towards her commander, eyeing her suspiciously. "Maria," she said plainly.

She responded accordingly, calling the agent by her first name as well, "Melinda," she said, understanding that the agent knew full well that the situation was not a typical one; that she wasn't necessarily talking to her superior anymore. "How did your team manage in the attacks?" Maria asked in grave fear; yet needing to know the extent of the damage that she'd created.

She could see the pain in the other woman's eyes as May halted in front of her, "Simmons didn't make it." Milinda locked her gaze onto Maria's as she shook her head, "Tell me you were carrying out orders," her eyes pleading with her, even though her face remained firm.

Maria swallowed; wanting to cry out in that moment, yet she kept her composure, even through the pain she'd felt over losing one of her agents, which had hit her hard. "I was not." she forced out, "Fury was in the dark about everything,"

"Where is he now?"

Maria tensed up as she recalled back to the horrific memory. "The last I saw of him, he was dropping into the Atlantic along with the three bullets that I'd put in his chest." Maria could see the shift in the woman's expression; like Maria had stabbed her in the back with her very words. "Agent May," Maria nodded, putting all of her energy into keeping herself from breaking, "now this is the time when you arrest me."

Milinda nodded, understanding that she had a job to do. She cleared her throat before announcing, "Maria Hill, you are under arrest for the murder of Director Nicholas Fury, and for your treasons against the state." The agent then turned to one of her men who was not equipped with a shield, gesturing with her head for him to take her.

The man complied, stepping to Maria, as she cooperated; putting her hands behind her back where he zip-tied them together, and led her out.

* * *

By the time the trio got to S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, it had already been claimed back. So Hope, Natasha, and Scott went straight to Operations, as instructed by Coulson. Once they arrived on the top floor, they found Steve, Sam, Thor, Coulson, Carter, and two other women who Hope didn't recognise, but she'd assumed the older one of the duo had been Agent May, based off of how she had been described to her prior.

"Okay," Coulson nodded at the three, before he looked about the room. "I guess we can get started." Hope was a little confused by his words; assuming that he was about to either debrief them, or give them new orders, and had been waiting on them to arrive. "The operation was a success. We have control of both stargates," Natasha pulled the little gate out of her possession (Hope had given it to her earlier) and walked over to Coulson, handing it over to him. The man bowed his head in thanks as he took it. "The Brood are cut off from Earth," he continued, "and their queen is dead. Without a queen, they are lost," he gestured over to the Asgardian, "according to Thor's intel on the creatures, that is."

"Yes," the god took over, "if they do not have a suitable female that can link the hoard together once again, they will die. The queen is essentially their brain. They need one in order to survive."

"Thank God," Sam breathed a sigh of relief.

"Not God, Hope is who you should be thanking," Natasha corrected him.

The man smiled towards the new Avenger, "I'm already excitedly awaiting for the day you become our team leader." Hope couldn't help but smirk at him; always finding him enduring, as she noticed Steve beside him, rolling his eyes with a smile towards the man's comment.

"Coulson," Natasha then eyed the senior agent, "If the operation was indeed a success, why, in all due respect, are you the one debriefing us?" She shook her head as she asked, "Where are they?"

Coulson glanced over to Agent May, where they shared a grave look, before he turned back. "Fury's dead."

"What?" Steve blurted.

"You've seen his body?" Natasha didn't take a second's hesitation to enquire about the claim.

"No," Agent May addressed her, "but by Hill's description of what happened, there isn't much need for a body to confirm his status."

In hearing Maria's name, Hope couldn't help but ask, "Where is she?"

"Hill?" May looked to her, "Ah," She briefly hesitated like she had to take a second for herself, "She's being processed," she said rather calmly.

Hope asked in confusion, "processed?"

"She confessed to Fury's murder," May explained, with such a heavy weight to her words.

Hope shook her head in disbelief, muttering, "No," under her breath.

"As well as being solely responsible for all the losses S.H.I.E.L.D. took." Agent May nodded sorifully, her emotions finally starting to breach, "She's going to the Raft for her crimes."

"She saved the entire planet!" Hope snapped in anger, refusing to accept what she was hearing, as her eyes darted over to Coulson, who she knew would be acting Director in that moment.

"Not the entire planet," that one agent that Hope didn't know, spoke up through visible pain. "People are dead because of her." The woman's voice shook, "she killed my best friend."

Coulson addressed her softly, "Daisy…"

"No!" She snapped at him, "Jemma is dead because of her." The woman took a calming breath before she turned her attention towards Hope. "Agent Simmons wasn't like us. She didn't join S.H.I.E.L.D. to fight the bad guys in combat like you and I do. She was smart, brilliant actually. She was a scientist. That was her contribution." The woman took another moment, as her eyes began watering. "She was in her own lab when it happened. A place that was supposed to be safe," a tear had started to run down the girls beautiful face, "She was supposed to be safe." She wiped her cheek dry with the back of her hand before she growled, "The Raft is exactly where Hill belongs." The woman then aggressively turned and walked out of the room.

Hope was speechless. Daisy's pain was so visible, and Hope felt for her down to her core, but even then, her outlook didn't change. She knew that there were dire consequences from Maria's actions, but she still believed them to be justified. Maria would never put a soul in danger unless it was completely necessary for the success of her mission. A mission, that they've all already learned, was life-or-death of their entire species.

"Fury has died before and come back with Maria's knowledge," Natasha's voice broke the silence of the room. "How do we know this isn't another one of their deceptions?"

"If that were the case, why would she not just say so?" May asked.

"I don't know," the spy shook her head as she sighed.

"She obviously needed to gain their trust, and taking out Fury was probably what solidified her position with them," Coulson theorised. "She must have deemed it necessary to sacrifice him for the safety of the human race."

"Fury's like a father to her," Steve spoke up again, clearly having a hard time with what they were discussing.

Natasha nodded in agreement to his words, "I'll believe he's dead only after a body is produced."

"I want to see her," Hope practically demanded, needing desperately to talk to Maria; not able to give her attention anywhere else in that moment.

"You can't." Coulson sighed, "none of us can. She's out of our jurisdiction now."

"This is fucked up," Hope growled in frustration before spinning on her heels, almost crashing into Scott, before cantering out; snarling so all could hear as she made haste towards the elevator, "she's a goddamn hero, not a fucking criminal!"

Once she loaded into the lift and it began its descent, Hope pounded the glass at the back, hard with her fists, as she cried out. She then turned, only to slide down the wall to the floor as she began to weep. It was like how Scott went to the Raft, all over again, but this time it felt infinitely worse. She couldn't accept the idea of not being with Maria ever again, and she was sure that there was no future release date for her like her partner had gotten. The thought of having to live on without her, as she'd be locked away forever, was too much.It wasn't fair! They didn't deserve this! they saved the world! Why were they being punished like this? Why was being a hero coupled with such horrific consequences?Maybe she wasn't equipped for this lifestyle afterall.


	21. Twenty-First

Hope was wearing her black Hermès pantsuit paired with her favourite Jimmy Choos heels. Her hair was pulled back in a low bun and her lips were painted red, where the woman had found herself standing over her kitchen table, inside her apartment; files sprawled about atop of it with her laptop open as she was hunched over, composing an email.

The elevator then chimed, where Hope sighed in annoyance, not even caring to look up to see who was disturbing her.

"One of the electrical panels in the lab keeps giving me grief." She heard her dad grumble as he walked over towards her.

She didn't know why he was telling her this, so she simply said, "okay," as she continued to type her message.

"So I called Scott to come over and take a look at it."

Her jaw tensed in hearing the man's name before she asked, "Why?" in a scoff.

"Gee, I don't know," he said with annoyed sarcasm, "maybe because he's an electrical engineer, Hope,"

She rolled her eyes before muttering, "Yeah I know, but is it really that bad?" She responded while still trying to concentrate on her task at the computer.

"It's bad enough that I no longer want to deal with it."

"And you're telling me this why?"

"Because he won't come over because of you."

She shrugged nonchalantly, "I'm not stopping him."

"He seems to think you are. I mean, you refuse to train with him, and according to what he told me, you're not answering his phone calls."

"I've been busy."

"Yeah? doing what? I mean, besides biting everyone's head off for so much as looking at you."

She snapped her head to the side as she curtly said, "I'm not biting anyone's head off. And you know exactly what I've been doing." She was really getting tired of having to constantly repeat herself in what she was trying to accomplish.

"Hanging up your wings."

"I'm starting Pym Tech back up. I don't have time for The Wasp anymore."

It had been around a fortnight since their Avenger's mission when they'd saved the world and Maria had gone off to prison, and in that time, Hope had decided to change her heading in life. She couldn't handle where she'd ended up, so she was falling back onto her old life.

"You fought me for so long to wear that suit," he sounded exasperated with her. "All you wanted to do was use the Pym Partial tech to help people. To be a hero."

"Well, maybe I don't want that anymore," she said in a bitter tone.

"Bullshit!"

Hope laughed in ironic anger. "This coming from the person who quit being Ant-Man."

"Hey," he raised his voice as he defended himself, "I lost the love of my life!"

"Yeah." She locked her gaze onto his as she spoke through the pain of her broken heart, "I know the feeling." She then broke eye contact with him as she quickly closed her laptop, deciding to send the email later, as she slipped her computer into her briefcase, that was sitting on top of a chair that was next to her. She then slid a stack of files into the bag as well, where she started out; walking past her dad. "Tell Scott that he can come by to fix your electrical problem," she said through an even tone. "I won't be around anyway, I've got a meeting with potential investors," and with that she loaded into the elevator to leave.

* * *

Hope's meeting had been quite promising, which she should have been ecstatic for, yet she felt completely dead inside. It was quickly seeping into her forethought that back when she was chairman of Pym Tech, she didn't really feel fulfilled then either. It took her until that moment to realise that she'd never really had a true reference point of happiness, but now that she had one, she knew that she was now, and had been before, completely miserable during her intrapreneurial days.

Hope's heels clacked up the walkway, leading into her childhood home. Her mother had texted her, wanting to know how the meeting had gone, so Hope decided to stop by and fill her in.

Janet had been somewhat supportive of her desire to start up their family company. Hope wasn't stupid though, she knew that her mother was only helping her because she didn't want to lose her daughter, since Hope was isolating herself from everyone else around her. However, despite this fact, Hope was allowing her mother to be a listening ear for her as she talked business, and only business, with her. Still not ready to open up and share her feelings about Maria and the Avengers.

When she opened the front door, she instantly cocked her head as her ears pinned to the sound of familiar voices, but voices that she had not expected to hear.

Hope made her way through the foyer and into the parlor to find both Natasha and Steve, chatting with her mother.

The trio turned to look at her, where Natasha smiled, "Hey, so you're just not answer your phone anymore?"

"Hey. Yeah, sorry I…"

"Blocked us? Yeah we noticed," the spy said with a smirk.

"I'm going to the kitchen. Check on the stew I've got brewing," Janet said, clearly making up an excuse to leave. "It was nice to see you both again," she smiled at the two Avengers.

"Likewise," Steve bowed his head at her before she slipped into the next room, which was the kitchen, where Hope was sure that she had every intention of eavesdropping onto their conversation.

"Ah…" Hope awkwardly asked, "so, what brings you two by?"

Steve took in a deep breath before he dove right into it, "Fury's alive."

"What?"

"Apparently after he was shot," the Captain elaborated, "he fell into the ocean where Maria had a rescue team standing by to scoop him up, hide him, and provide him with medical attention."

"She did?" Hope whispered with a small smile, proud of Maria for her resourcefulness and constant diligence in protecting those who she could.

"Yeah," Natasha smirked with a nod, "Like I said, never trust a Fury death. Especially when Maria's involved."

"Why didn't she say she had this backup plan though?" Hope asked, "why did she make us think she killed him?"

Steve started, "Always operate under the worst case scenario--"

"Then you'll never be surprised," Natasha finished. Hope then looked back and forth between the two, in confusion. "You've never heard Maria say that?" Natasha shook her head, "It's like her number one philosophy in life."

"She wouldn't have known if Fury survived her attack or not," Steve continued, not giving Hope an opportunity to answer the woman's questions. "So she would've operated under the assumption that he was dead."

"Believing herself to be his executioner," Natasha interjected.

"So," Hope quickly connected the dots, "that means they can't hold her for murder then."

"Right," Steve nodded, "I mean, they did try to change the charge to attempted murder, but Fury made them drop it. He's also insisting she get a trial for her treason charges."

"A trial?" She suddenly had a glimmer of hope peeking through her storm clouds of a psyche.

"Yeah. The tribunal granted it too." Steve said as if he still couldn't quite believe it.

"So she has a chance of getting out?" She felt like she was about to burst with joy, but it was soon squelched when the two remained silent, sharing a serious look between them. "What is it?"

Natasha bit her lip before she informed her, "she's refusing the trial"

"She's what?" Hope snapped in angered surprise. "Why? Why would she do that?" She had felt personally attacked, like Maria hadn't cared about her; choosing to stay away from her.

"Because she's Maria," Steve sighed in visible aggravation, where he rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger before he carried on. "Knowing her, she's carrying every single one of those deaths like an unbearable weight, ready to let it crush her to death."

"Her annoying righteousness is making her believe she belongs in there," Natasha shook her head, like she too was exasperated.

"She doesn't though," Hope stated.

"Of course she doesn't, but you know that's what she's thinking," the woman crossed her arms over her chest.

Hope refused to give up, they were so close to a solution that would get Maria out. "Can't someone convince her to accept the trial?"

"Fury's been trying to talk to her, but the Raft has tightened up security," Natasha said, "They don't allow any communication with their prisoners. Not even for the director of S.H.I.E.L.D, evidently."

"That's not constitutional!" Hope cried.

Steve said, "The Raft operates outside of U.S. law."

"Does she at least know Fury's alive?"

"Apparently she was told, yes," he nodded.

"So what can be done?" Hope was praying that they had a plan, she was ready to do anything.

"I don't know if there's anything that can be done," Steve said defeatedly. "We just felt you deserved to know about Fury," he locked his apologetic gaze onto her, where she could see that he too was in pain. "We also wanted to check in on you," he said softly.

"I'm fine," She tore her eyes away. "But I really have a lot of work to do here," she lifted her briefcase up, "gotta send a bunch of emails, make some phone calls," she exaggerated the urgency of it all, as she started back towards the foyer, wanting to escape into her childhood bedroom upstairs; desperately trying to avoid a conversation about how she was feeling.

"Are you quitting the Avengers?" Steve asked the back of her head, as she was at the threshold of the foyer.

"I ah," She dropped her head, as she forced herself to look back. "Yes," she simply said.

"Are you sure this is what you want?" Steve asked with a supportive tone.

"I…," she looked away again as she shook her head, "I really have to go." She then speedily walked away, climbing the stairs, only to shut herself away once again.

* * *

It had been nearly a week since Natasha and Steve had dropped by to see Hope, where the anger that she'd been previously holding, had doubled. She was no longer just mad at the system that had locked Maria away, she was now also mad at Maria herself for not fighting to get out.

Hope had poured even more of her time and energy into Pym Tech, like she was on autopilot, not being able to stop even though she hated every second of it; she refused to take any fraction of a moment to herself, scared of her own thoughts.

She was in her apartment, in casual clothing, as she was perusing through commercial real estate websites, searching for potential buildings for the company, when she'd gotten a text message from her mother, asking her if she'd meet her downstairs in the lab for a moment.

Hope didn't bother to ask why, for that she welcomed the opportunity to get up and take a break to stretch out her legs.

She'd taken the stairs down, but when she arrived in the lab, she was taken by surprise; seeing Scott there next to both of her parents, all standing in front of their large panel monitor that was suspended underneath the balcony of the small lab that was located just above it.

"What's this?" She gestured at the trio and the screen, that had a few horizontal lines that sat statically across it. "What's going on?"

Her dad responded, "back in my S.H.I.E.L.D. days I worked with the man, who would eventually move on to design The Raft." He flicked his finger on the scroller of the mouse, that he had in hand, in turn, zooming out of the image on the screen. "Let's say he owed me a favour."

Hope studied the monitor for a moment as she gawked, "Dad, are those the blue prints?"

"Yes." He stepped over to the screen, pointing at a particular location on it, "this outside access here, should lead you right into the duct system." He turned to her, "I'm just waiting on some intel to let us know which cell Hill's in."

"Wait, what?" Hope asked in shock.

"Well you're going to need to know where she is," he said simply. "We're not going to have much time before our presents is detected. and I'm assuming you're going to want to use as much of it to convince her to accept her trial."

Hope was dumbfounded as she stared at the blue prints, then to her dad. "You made a plan for me to go see Maria?" She'd finally muttered, still in disbelief; knowing that her dad had never liked the woman and had seemed rather pleased that she was out of Hope's life, when he'd first learned of what happened to her those few weeks ago.

"Don't act so shocked," he grumbled awkwardly, "I'm doing this for all our benefits. I don't know how much longer we can take of your miserable attitude, and bizarre need to restart a company that you never really liked all that much in the first place."

"Dad," Hope could feel her eyes welling up as she stepped towards him, throwing her arms around him in a hug. The man reciprocated the gesture, enveloping her back while holding her tightly. "I thought you hated her," Hope mumbled into his shoulder.

"Well, she did shoot Fury and betray S.H.I.E.L.D, so that gives her a few favourable points in my books."

Hope burst out into laughter. For the first time, she'd felt accepted and loved by her father for who she truly was. "Thank you," Hope tightened her grasp around him, where he'd done the same; driving the point home that he was there for her.

Hope then heard the sound of the elevator ping, where she lifted her head off of her dad's shoulder to see someone get off of the lift. Hope immediately stepped away from Hank; focus glued onto the woman who was now approaching them.

"Block C, Cell 9. The prison will be resurfacing tomorrow at 1200 for a prisoner transport," the newest arrival said flatly.

"Agent Johnson?" Hope said in confusion, now familiar with who she was.

"Yeah," she acknowledged Hope, "so, your dad wasn't exactly discreet when he was poking around for this information. You guys are lucky I was the one to notice him, before somebody else did."

This was now the second time Hope had been surprised to see someone helping, that she'd assumed wouldn't. "I thought Maria belonged in the Raft, according to you?"

The agent sighed, "yeah, well. maybe she doesn't." She tossed a file onto the table that was near them.

Hope nodded, realising that the girl still seemed very conflicted inside. "I really am sorry about your friend," she said with the utmost sincerity.

Daisy nodded like she believed her, before she turned and left as abruptly as she had entered, while calling out, "I was never here!"

Scott had then picked up the file that she'd dropped off, opening it to skim it, when he was quick to gasp, "Holy crap, the prisoner they're transporting is Patsy!"

"Who?" Hope asked.

"You know,'That's our Patsy'," he swung his fist in a scooping motion, like he was referencing something. "The Patsy show?" He looked about the room, throwing his hands up in disbelief as they all seemed to be looking at him with confusion. "Little redheaded girl, not to be confused with Orphan Annie, or Anne of Green Gables." The man looked frazzled, "okay, did you guys even have a T.V. in your home?"

"No," the Pyms said dryly and all in unison.

"So anyway," Hank tore his judgmental stare off of Scott to direct his attention back to the screen, "we're going to land the miniaturised chopper here, and you can get in through here."

"We have a pilot?" Hope asked.

Scott then jumped in, "Luis's cousin knows a guy who's sister-in-law's roommate's best friend's brother is a pilot. And he said he'd fly us there, no questions, no problem." Hope shook her head with a smirk, always so equally impressed and terrifying by Luis's odd connections, and how he seemed to have the ability to track down anything and anybody.

"Here," Janet had walked up to Hope, handing her an envelope.

"What's this?" She looked to it, before taking it.

"When you get in there, please give it to Maria for me." Hope looked to her mom, a smile finding its way onto her face, realising that she'd written her a message. "I hope it'll help her."

"I'll make sure she gets it," Hope wrapped her arms around her mother where Janet hugged her back. "Thank you."

"We love you and we're here to get you through this," she rubbed her daughter's back.

"Yeah, we got you," Scott added.

Hope grinned as she reached over, tugging her partner over, "get in here, Scott."

"Yay, I love hugs," he cheered, where the man was quick to wrap his arms around the two women.

Hope sighed, taking in the moment to bask in the love that had surrounded her, for that after that embrace, it would be noses to the grindstone with their undivided attention set on their new mission.

* * *

Maria was curled into a ball laying on her bed in her solitary prison cell. The room had three blank walls with the fourth one being almost completely glass. It felt more like a small zoo habitat than a jail cell to the woman, where the employees there had often stood just watching her, for no other reason than hoping that she'd expose herself infront of them. Those weeks that she'd been there she'd basically stayed in that one spot on her bed, where she could ignore anyone who tried to invade her privacy from outside of her cell.

Maria had then stretched out her leg where she was quick to retract it, wincing in pain. That morning during her shower time, one of the guards had left her with a good swift kick to her ribs. She'd gotten smacked around quite often by a certain few individuals. They'd known she was a traitor and responsible for a lot of death's within S.H.I.E.L.D. so they felt justified in their actions, which Maria had simply allowed to happen, never putting up a fight; agreeing with them that she'd deserved it too. A bruised rib cage was nothing compared to what she'd caused. She'd often thought on Jemma, the sweet young agent that had died because of her. She didn't deserve that, none of them had deserved that, so Maria had always remained on the ground and allowed the attacks to continue.

Something then caught the corner of Maria's eye, she lifted her head off of her pillow as she saw a line of black ants crawling along the wall of her cell from the air vent. Maria pushed her sore body into a sitting position as she tracked their movements towards the camera in her room, as they completely covered it; stacking their bodies one on top of the other.

Before she'd realised what was happening, she felt the air displaced inside the room, where suddenly she wasn't alone in her cell anymore.

Deactivating her helmet, a harsh voice practically yelled at her, "what the hell is wrong with you?"

"Hope?" Maria jumped up to her feet in total shock. She looked at the woman's beautiful, yet angry looking face, as she stuttered out, "I- I didn't know how else to infiltrate A.I.M." She'd assumed Hope was furious with her about her traitorous actions.

"No not that. I'm not mad about that," Hope snapped at her. "What I'm mad about is you refusing a trail. What the hell is wrong with you?" she repeated with the same amount of anger as before.

"I'm a traitor to S.H.I.E.L.D," she cried out, "I betrayed Fury, I put the planet at risk by temporarily neutralising its best line of defense, and worst of all, I got my own men killed." Maria huffed, her eyes beginning to well up, "I don't need a trial to tell me that I belong here because --trust me-- I already know."

"Switching the track was the right choice," Hope said matter of factly.

"What?"

"Sacrificing the few to save the many, it was the right choice." Hope explained, "and we had knives to cut ourselves free too, remember? And not only did we have the opportunity to get out of harm's way, we chose to be there in the first place."

"What? No you didn't," she shook her head before she pointed to herself, "I put you there."

Hope crossed her arms, leaning her weight on her back foot, "you made us all inlist? You forced our hands so we'd join the Avengers?" She harshly asked her.

"No but--"

"Ah-uh, no buts," she cut her off. "We chose to fight, the rest of the world didn't. You put us exactly where we should have been. In direct path of the danger, so the innocent wouldn't be."

"Hope--"

"No," she threw her hands down in frustration, "you have to take your trial."

"I can't." Maria was doing everything to not start crying, "I don't deserve one."

"Yes, you do," Hope stared her down.

Maria dropped her head, not being able to handle Hope's intensity. "No," she muttered.

"Fine!" Hope's tone cut like a knife, making Maria look back to her, as Hope crossed her arms once again, "you don't think you deserve one, I get it, I don't agree, but okay, fine," she then took a step closer to Maria as she pointed to herself, "But do you not think that I deserve one?"

"You?" Maria asked in complete confusion.

"Yeah. Do you not think I deserve to see you again? Or am I forever destined to suffer along with you and your ridiculous self righteous punishment?"

"I…," Maria was totally caught off guard. That whole time she had thought that Hope would have never wanted to see her again after what she'd done, "I-- ah--"

"You what?" Hope angrily snapped at her with visible tears in her eyes. "You thought that I'd just accept you leaving me forever? That I'd just shrug you off and move on? Because if that was your intent," she aggressively slashed the air in front of her, "you royally fucked it up when you made it impossible for me not to fall in love with you."

Maria felt a pain in her chest, like her heart was trying to punch her from the inside out, as all she wanted to do was confess her love for her and kiss her like everything was going to be alright. Though, before Maria had time to react, they heard Hank's voice over the communicator in The Wasp suit. "Hope, you have to get out now, there's a guard that's practically on top of you."

Hope huffed, before she quickly pulled something out of her suit, throwing it on top of the bed, before looking to Maria, "I guess I'm not worth fighting for then," she then shrunk down.

"Hope!" Maria called, but it was too late, the woman had already flown through the vent.

"Hey!" A guard banged on her window, "what the hell is going on in there?"

"Fuck off, Jefferson!" Maria snapped at the man, tears running down her face.

"What the fuck did you just say to me, Traitor?"

"You heard me."

"Do you want me to come in there and show you what's up," he pulled out his baton.

"Sure," Maria opened her arms, taunting him on, "but today I feel like fighting back."

She saw the fear in the man's eyes as he said, "take this as a warning, and pipe the fuck down." He then wandered off, making it clear that Hope had gotten out without notice.

Maria then brought her hands to her head, trying to calm herself by taking a few deep breaths, which were doing next to nothing.

She then turned to sit on her bed, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, as she then realised that Hope had thrown a letter on her mattress. Maria looked to the, now uncovered, camera on the wall, moving her body to block the item from its view as she picked it up. She slowly opened the envelope; removing a piece of paper that had a handwritten message on it where she began to read:

My dearest Maria,

I know this may be the hardest thing to hear right now, but it must be said: I am so damn proud of you. I know that you're holding onto the guilt of what you had to sacrifice, but you're going to have to look beyond it and realise that you deserve a happy and fulfilling life, and not this doomed one behind bars. None of us are giving up on you, especially not me. I may have only known you for a short while, but ever since I met you that day in the Avengers Tower, I could see it, clear as day, that you were an extension of Hope, and Hope has always been an extension of me. You are a part of us. You are my daughter, so you better get your butt back here to your family.

With all the love,

Your, possibly presumptuous, mother, Janet.

By the end of the letter, Maria was weeping. Never would she have imagined that she'd have this loving family who was fighting for her. Who hadn't just abandoned her when things had gotten messy, but who had shown up in the middle of the mess to drag her out of it.

So Maria wiped her eyes and stood up, where she proceeded to go to her window and pound on the glass. "Hey, Jefferson!" She shouted.

It didn't take long for the man to reappear. "I thought I told you to pipedown?" He growled.

Maria, ignoring his question, demanded with the utmost conviction, "Tell the warden that I want my trial."


	22. Twenty-Second

About a week after Hope had successfully snuck in and out of the Raft to see Maria, Natasha had informed her that Maria had taken her trial and told her when and where her court date would be, since both her and Scott had the security clearance to attend it. Which ended up being set three weeks later in New York City.

In that time, Hope ceased her efforts that she'd been placing into Pym Tech; waiting on the results of the trial to see where she'd go from there. A trail that she was nervously attending in that very moment; sitting in the benches of the courthouse, awaiting for it to begin.

The courtroom was like no other, the seats where her, Scott, and the other Avengers, along with a few S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, were sitting in were elevated; like a balcony, completely separate from the courtroom floor, with no access point to the lower level in the room. Which was most likely done for security purposes. There were also no windows in sight, just cold concrete walls. On the lower area there was a single desk for the judge and a single steel pillar protruding out of the floor with a small ring at the top of it, which Hope was pretty sure was used to bolt the prisoner to.

Hope had been silently biting her nails, just staring out at the empty floor, while she could hear the others around her quietly talking amongst themselves.

Suddenly a door opened, its sound echoing throughout the space, as four armed guards escorted Maria into the room, making Hope jolt up in her seat, as the voices in the room instantly fell silent.

Hope held her breath as she watched the woman, who was dressed in what she'd assumed was what she'd been wearing when she was arrested, which were black dress pants and a tucked in pinstripe button up shirt; her hair was tied back in a low bun. The woman had chains around her feet, wrists, and waist, that she noisily dragged along to the post where --Hope was right-- they had fastened her to.

Hope felt this sickness in her stomach, looking at Maria who was being treated like a dangerous criminal. Maria, however, stood tall, even despite her circumstances. She held her head up, and her jaw tight, refusing to look back behind her at the gallery. Which seemed befitting of her; always needing to appear though, in control, and independent.

Through another door, to the front of the courtroom, entered a man in uniform with Director Fury trailing behind him. The man then pointed to the back of the room for Fury to stand, not terribly far way from the four armed guards.

Then the gentleman looked to the courtroom, before announcing in a clear voice, "All rise." Where everyone in the benches got to their feet as a black man in robes, who looked to be in his fifties, walked into the room, going straight to the desk at the front where he sat down. The man in uniform, who was clearly the bailiff, then announced, "Department One of the United Nations Tribunal is now in session. Judge Williams presiding. Please be seated." Everyone in the gallery did as instructed.

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen," the judge addressed the room, taking note of the bench seats. "I have to say, I've never seen my courtroom so full. Don't normally have this many people with the security clearance." He then reached out where the bailiff stepped to him, placing a file in his hand, "Anyway," the judge opened the folder, putting on a pair of reading glasses, "calling the case of the People of the State versus Hill into session."

Williams looked to Maria, as he lowered his head, pearing at her over his glasses, "Ms. Hill, I don't know how much you've been told pertaining to the trial proceedings, with you not permitted to legal advice in the Raft, so I'll say it once now in front of you," he then gestured to the rest of the room, "and the gallery. In this tribunal you are without council and jury. I will be questioning you directly, and if I so wish, I will call witnesses. At any point, once I feel like I'm satisfied to deliberate, I'll read my verdict." Hope tensed up, praying that the judge would be reasonable, since Maria's life rested on his decision alone. "Ms. Hill, do you understand?

"Yes, Your Honour," Maria's voice came so calmly, which made Hope realise just how strong Maria truly was.

The judge nodded before he looked down to the file, reading off of it, "You have been charged with, and admitted to, the crime of giving classified information to an enemy of the state, and assisting an enemy of the state in eight individual acts of terrorism, which resulted in the manslaughter of twenty-six individuals." He looked back to her, "Do you still plead guilty to these crimes?"

"I do, but guilty with explanation," again, her voice was steady.

"Alright, Ms. Hill," he said, where Hope had wondered if he was unknowingly not calling her by her rank, or if it was purposeful, like being a prisoner of the Raft striped you entirely of your personhood, including your earned titles. "Do you promise that the testimony you shall give in the case before this court shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

"I do."

"Okay, I will begin my questioning," he said after making a note in her file. "Did you act independently when you joined the terrorist group known as A.I.M.?"

"I did."

"You had absolutely no outside entities direct your actions? No orders from S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"I acted with complete independence. There were no orders given."

"What were your justifications for your actions?"

Maria took a deep breath before starting, "I received intel that A.I.M. was in the process of bringing a Delta Level threat to the planet. I concluded the only way I would be able to gain the amount of information that was needed to stop the threat, was to infiltrate the organisation myself." She licked her lips, as if she were parched, before continuing, "I used the attack that was placed on the Avengers tower, that transpired on June fifth, 2019 as my in; claiming that I specifically compromised the system for A.I.M. to get into it. Convincing them I was defecting."

"Did you compromised the system?"

"No. There was an unintentional error created during a rewiring mishaps." Hope couldn't help but look over to Tony in the benches, where the man had looked guilty, yet touched, that Maria didn't name him for that error.

"And why is it you didn't run this plan by your Director first?" The Judge asked while Hope looked back to the floor.

"I managed to gain A.I.M.'s attention before I had the opportunity to inform Fury. By that point, I figured it was too great a risk to tell him," she swallowed, "they were already watching him. Also," she added, "if nobody knew of my plan at S.H.I.E.L.D., it'd only make my cover stronger with A.I.M."

"And yet you stopped by to see the two Avengers, Mr. Lang and Ms. Van Dyne during this time when you claimed to be deep undercover." The judge pointed out to both her and Scott; Hope startled by the fact that he knew who they were. "Why?" He asked, making Hope's body stiffen; scared that she'd indirectly made things worse for Maria.

"A.I.M. wasn't interested in them. They weren't privy to their new recruitment into the Avengers project," Maria continued, but Hope could see that she'd become a little rattled by the line of questioning. "So I was able to briefly see them that day without drawing any attention."

"Did you tell them about your self appointed mission?"

"No."

"So what was it that you were doing there?"

"Attending a little girl's ninth birthday party," she said flatly.

"You're telling me you took a party break in the middle of playing terrorist?" The judge's level tone got a little excitable, "I'm having a hard time in believing this. What was your true objective there?" He then leaned forward in his chair, pointing at her, "And remember, you're under oath."

For the first time, Maria dropped her head, as she took a moment before looking back up; responding, "I went there specifically to see Hope Van Dyne."

"Why?"

Maria sighed taking another moment before she spoke up, "I knew this mission would change everything. Either I would be found out by A.I.M. and killed for it, or I'd be successful in exchange for being a traitor of S.H.I.E.L.D.," she shook her head, "No matter what, my life was essentially over. So I decided to spend one last time with the woman I love."

Hope gasped as her breathing began to shake and her eyes started to well, for that Maria had loved her too. Now shereallycouldn't handle it if she'd gone back to prison.

Suddenly she felt a hand on her own, where Scott had reached over, giving it a supportive squeeze, as the Judge looked directly to her. Not that she cared much about the attention from him when, for the first time, Maria had looked back, to catch her gaze, where Hope could only stare at her beautiful face that was looking at her with such vulnerability.

"Okay." The judge said plainly, like he believed her, which drew Maria's attention back to him, as she turned her head away. The man then flipped a sheet of paper, like he'd decided to move on, before announcing, "I will be calling Director Nicholas Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. to the stand."

As the Director walked forward to stand close to Maria, Scott squeezed her hand one last time before pulling it away. "Do you promise that the testimony you shall give in the case before this court shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?" The judge asked Fury, as Hope tried her best to discreetly wipe her eyes dry.

"Shouldn't I have my hand on a Bible?" Fury asked, like he was questioning the validity of the court case itself.

"Are you requesting one? Because one can be provided."

"No, that's not necessary," he said in annoyance. "I swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God," the man very stubbornly added the God part on, showing his disapproval.

"Can you confirm that Ms. Hill acted independently in her actions and without orders from you?"

"I cannot confirm this. No." His words made Hope cock her head in confused intrigue.

"Are you telling me that you ordered this mission?" The judge asked in a manner akin to the puzzlement that Hope was experiencing.

"They were implicit orders."

"Implicit orders?"

"Look, I don't have the time of day to give my Deputy Director a direct order for everything that she needs to get done. But when she gets something done, it's 'cause it was an implied damned order."

"Watch your language in my courtroom," Williams warned him.

It was clear that Fury was about to snap back at him, but Maria gave him a look, which seemed to make him re-evaluate his behaviour. The Director took a calming breath before he continued. "She was right, too. She didn't need to risk her mission to tell me about it. 'Cause she already knew I'd tell her to carry on with it."

The judge studied him over for a moment before he asked, "So you're telling the court that you take full responsibility for all of Ms. Hills actions, regardless of what they are?"

"Yes, I take responsibility for all ofCommanderHill's actions," he was sure to emphasise her rank, "because they always prove to be necessary. So if you need to put anyone on trial here, it should be me. And if not that, I would ask the court if I could get my Deputy Director back."

"According to my file here," he gestured to his papers, "she tried to kill you. Why are you so insistent to have somebody back into your ranks who opened fire on you?"

"Your Honour, if Commander Hill wanted to kill me, I'd be dead."

"Dead like the twenty-six in your service?"

"Look," the man was clearly having a hard time containing his annoyed anger, "being a leader is about making the hard decisions, and sometimes that's choosing who lives and who doesn't. But let me ask you this, Judge. What's better, twenty-six dead, or seven billion dead?"

"This is my courtroom, I ask the questions, Director." Fury only nodded in frazzled understanding. "Everyone who lost their lives was a part of S.H.I.E.L.D., correct?"

"That's correct."

The judge then looked to Hope and the others in the bences. "Those sitting in the gallery, are they all members of S.H.I.E.L.D. as well?"

Fury turned to confirm, "They are."

"Those of you in the benches," he kept his gaze on them, "I'd ask if any who support Ms. Hill's actions, please stand."

Hope got to her feet, where she looked around to find every single person there standing as well. Hope then noticed Maria turning to look into the gallery, where Hope could have sworn she could see Maria's eyes tearing up, like she were in complete shock over the scene in front of her.

"Okay, you may be seated," The judge then looked to the man standing in the middle of the floor, "you too Director Fury, you may go back to the perimeter." Williams allowed everyone to settle back into their seats, and Fury to walk back to the side of the room, before he said, "I feel like I've heard enough here. I'm prepared to read my verdict."

Hope gulped, as she instantly reached over to Scott, who took her hand once again.

"Ms. Hill. your life sentence will be reduced..." Hope held her breath as she squeezed Scott's hand tightly "to two months in the Raft, with a one week probation period."

Hope gasped in relief as Scott wrapped his arm around her, hugging her into his side as Hope covered her face with her hand, in shock, with tears instantly forming in her eyes. "You may free Commander Hill of her restraints, she's served her time," the judge ordered the guards, while, for the first time, using Maria's rank. Two of the armed men then walked to her, uncuffing her as they untethered her from the chains around her body.

Maria looked to her, where Hope stood up as her stomach was doingsomersault and her heart was pounding; wanting to hop down to her, but knowing that that would be both inappropriate and a little dangerous to do so.

"This way," a guard told Maria, where he started guided her out, making the Commander turn away from Hope as she exited the room, with Fury behind her. Hope then beelined it to the exit; needing to catch up with Maria as soon as she possibly could; desperation taking her over.

* * *

"You know, you could have shot me just the one time," Fury looked to Maria as they walked down the hallway of the courthouse together, with two guards guiding them.

"You always tell me to never half ass anything," Maria smirked, still not fully comprehending that she'd just gotten out of prison.

"Well now I'm seriously reevaluating all the things I've ever told you."

Despite Maria's smartass response to him, she'd actually felt immense guilt for shooting him. "Sir, I'm sorry. I--"

"Don't," he put up his hand to stop her.

"Right," she nodded, knowing that their relationship had never needed words. He knew that she was sorry, and she knew that he understood. "Sir?"

He sighed, like he wasn't prepared for whatever it was that she was about to say. "Yes, Commander?"

"Thank you," she nodded, having immense gratitude for how he fought for her.

Fury stopped in front of the door in the hallway, where the guards had now flanked it; awaiting for them to step through and leave, where he nodded in understanding, before ordering, "so, I'll be expecting you to report back to command in exactly one week's time."

A smile grew on Maria's face before she answered, "Yes, Sir."

He then gestured for her to go through the door, that they could already hear voices emanating from the other side of. She nodded, mustering up the courage before she pushed it open, which lead into the courthouse's large foyer.

Inside everyone from the gallery was communing with each other, when they slowly started noticing her presence; multiple voices quickly dying down into silence, as Maria nervously looked about the room. Soon, her breath caught in her throat as her eyes fell onto the sight of Hope, standing next to Scott.

The breathtaking woman was wearing an emerald green suit jacket with black pants. Her hair down and wavy, like she'd allowed it to dry in a frenchbraid after her shower.

When Hope's eyes locked onto Maria's from across the way, nothing else mattered in that moment. Maria had to go to her, and this time, there wasn't a stupid balcony stoping her.

Natasha, from nearby, quickly addressed the room, "let's all go --you know-- not be here," as she grabbed at people's arms, herding them to the other side of the room, to congregate closer to the main doors.

Hope started slowly walked towards Maria, eyes fixed on her, which made Maria's stomach knot. Soon Maria's feet were moving underneath her, quickly carrying her to meet Hope, not able to last another second apart from her, needing her more than ever. "Hope," Maria cried out, as the other woman nearly lunged at her, wrapping her arms around her neck, where Maria enveloped her too. Maria forcefully pushed her face into the side of Hope's head, squeezing her eyes shut as if she were trying to merge her being with hers. She then spoke into her hair with desperation, "I'd fight the whole universe for you. I love you so goddamn much."

Hope pulled her head back while sliding her hands to Maria's face; quickly muttered, "and I love you," before she aggressively pushed her mouth to Maria's, kissing her passionately.

Maria's stomach fluttered, as she could feel her closed eyes welling up; tears trying to escape down her cheeks. She didn't think she'd ever experience the loving touch of Hope again, and now that she had her back in her arms, while she reacquainted herself with the familiar homely taste of her mouth, she'd thought she'd ascended straight to heaven.

When they eventually broke off their kiss, they dropped their forehead together as Maria opened her eyes to catch Hope with hers still shut. Smiling at her gentle expression and shiny teary cheeks, Maria brought her hands to Hope's face, rubbing the wet spots dry, which resulted in a beautiful smile to break across Hope's face, before she fluttered her eyes open to look at her.

"Hey," Hope said, her green eyes shining at her.

Maria smiled back to her, "hey." Hope then lifted her hands to Maria's face, as she too wiped away at the tears that had managed to roll down her cheeks.

Hope continued to rub her thumb lovingly over Maria's face, as her soft eyes gazed into Maria's. "You okay?" She asked gently.

Maria closed her eyes, taking in a deep breathe, as her reality was starting to sink in. As much as she felt safe in Hope's arms, she was about to face all the others that she'd wronged. "From one to ten, how mad are people at me right now?"

"In this room?" Hope moved her hands to rest them on Maria's shoulders.

"Might as well start in this room," she opened her eyes.

"Well, starting with me, I'm no longer mad at you since you got your ass out of prison," she gave her a cheeky smirk before looking out to everyone else, who seemed to be trying their best to mind their own business. "Nat wants to slap you for not telling her your plan. Tony's really upset about the Avengers Tower, but has yet to name you as the person he's mad at." She looked to Maria as she said in a surprised tone, "he seems to have a bit of a soft spot for you. He didn't speak one ill word about you this whole time." Maria wasn't terribly shocked to hear that. Her and Tony actually had a really good working relationship, where he'd respected her much more than the majority of people throughout her life ever had; never having her prove her value to him, nor was he ever judgmental towards her actions. Hope then turned back to the crowd, "Sharon --I think-- wants to kick your ass for trying to kill her."

"She always wants to kick my ass," Maria muttered under her breath.

"And I feel like everyone else is relatively good."

Maria looked over to see the two senior agents off to the far side of the room, talking amongst themselves. "What about Coulson and May?"

"Honestly, I can't get a read on them, but your Agent Johnson was pretty rattled."

"Fuck," Maria shut her eyes, knowing that Daisy would most definitely be taking Jemma's death hard.

"Hey," Hope cupped her face, forcing Maria to look at her. "You're going to get through this," she said with determination. "I'm going to make sure of that."

Maria loved her so much in that moment as she let out a small, "kay," before she sighed and nodded; trying to snap herself into gear just as Sharon walked up to them, putting her hands on her hips.

"I do want to kick your ass," The blonde sternly said.

"You nosy, eavesdropping, bitch," Maria turned towards her, breaking contact with Hope, while she took a step closer to the agent. "And don't give me that, you could've handled six of those untrained buffoons," Maria huffed at her.

"Six?" The blonde eyed her, "No, you could've handled six. I could've taken seven," she held her gaze before she let a smirk slip. "Which still doesn't mean you're off the hook." She huffed, "making me think you were trying to off me and all."

"If you kept a cooler head, you would realise when I was playing you, and when I was trying to kill you."

She crossed her arms, as she barked back defensively, "I figured it out!" Her reaction made Maria chuckle, resulting in Sharon grinning from ear to ear. "You owe me drinks for a year, I hope you realise this."

"Yeah," Maria sighed in defeat.

"Me too," Natasha popped into their conversation, from behind Sharon, eyeing Maria with both playfulness and love. "Just thinking about having to break in a new Deputy Director was stressing me out. I deserve compensation for my mental health," the spy said coyly.

"Ah-huh," Maria eyed her. "Fine, I'll pick up your tab too," she caved.

"Good," Natasha smiled with a nod.

"Anyway," Sharon huffed before asking in exasperation, "so are you gonna get your butt over here or what?"

Maria chuckled as she closed the gap between her and the agent, who she viewed more as a sibling than anything else; throwing her arms around her in a hug. Sharon squeezed her tightly before pulling away, as she scrunched her face, "Gah, you smell like my grandma's soap."

"I'm sorry, it's not like they had a Lush in prison," Maria shot back dryly.

"Okay," Steve then came over, "It's my turn," as he extended his arms where Maria smiled and welcomed his hug; walking right into it, genuinely loving his embraces. His body was so much larger than hers that she felt very protected in his muscular arms. "Please don't give me grief for saying this, and more importantly, don't shrug it off," he said while enveloping her.

Maria groaned in annoyance as she asked, "oh god, what is it?"

"You're my hero," he said before kissing the top of her head.

"I hate you."

He chuckled at her words before he pulled away from her. "glad to see prison hasn't changed you."

"Hope," Maria tuned to her, "can you please take me away from these people now?" she said in a somewhat joking manner, beyond relieved that her friend's were supporting her, yet she really did find the reintegration a little overwhelming, especially after her stressful trial.

"I don't know," Hope took a step towards her, where Maria couldn't help but wrap her arm around her waist; needing the contact with the woman as she pulled her into her side. "It looks like you have a few more people to see before I can do that," she smiled, placing her hand on Maria's far hip, hugging her closer, as she looked out to the room.

Thor seemed to instantly notice their wandering gaze as he caught their eye, grinning at them, before he started his way over. The trio split for the Asgurdian as he approached the couple. "Praise Odin, I am so relieved that you are out of prison and back with your Queen Slayer," he said joyously.

"Queen slayer?" Maria asked in confusion.

"Yes!" He cheered excitedly as he explained, "The Hope Wasp is infamous across the Nine Realms for defeating The Brood Queen. There are planets wanting to erect statues of The Queen Slayer," he grinned as he gestured in grandeur towards Hope.

"What?" Both Maria and Hope asked in shocked unison, as Scott had speedily stepped over, clearly overhearing their conversation.

"Yes," he looked to Hope, "It seems The Brood could not find a suitable female to unite them. There are reports that the entire race is slowly dying off."

Maria, still completely shocked, turned Hope's body in her arms, to face her, as she asked in befuddlement, "you killed the Brood Queen?"

Hope stuttered through a shocked smile, "I- I literally just shot my blaster at the stargate as she was stepping through it. I barely put any effort into it."

"You know, that sounds like a brag when you say it like that," Scott interjected, before he put his attention onto the Commander, "by the way, it's great to have you back, Maria."

"Thanks, Scott," Maria turned her head to address him. "love to catch up, but I kinda need to deal with The Queen Slayer here," she used her head to point at Hope.

"Yup, totally understandable."

Sam then piped up from behind the group, "First mission out in the field, and she's a hero of the galaxy. Best future team leader ever," where a smack sound was heard followed by an, "ouch!"

Maria ignored the man's words of just praise towards her girlfriend, and the hit that she was pretty sure Steve had delivered to him, as she looked to Hope, too concerned by her actions. "That wasn't in the mission. The Brood are extremely dangerous," she said, not liking the risk that she put herself in.

"Hey, I saw the way you freaked out over our giant ants. I knew you'd be a wreck if those big bug aliens were around, so I had no choice but to deal with them for your own benefit."

Maria couldn't help but chuckle before she said with the most disgust, picturing their foul forms, "they were so gross," she shivered which made Hope giggle.

"Bugs are not supposed to be that big," Hope shook her head, mocking Maria's words.

"I know you're making fun of me, but I don't care, because they shouldn't be that big." Maria looked to her longingly, wanting to show her personal hero just how much she appreciated her.

"Okay, we're gonna go," Scott said as if he caught the desire in Maria's eyes for his partner. "Leave you two at it."

"Yup," Sharon seconded his words, "let's blow this popsicle stand." She then spun on her heels before asking, "Who wants to get shawarma?"

"Did someone say shawarma?" Tony jumping in on their conversation as the gang passed by him, along with Bruce and Clint.

Almost immediately, they were all exiting the building, arguing about where they should stop for food.

The foyer was now empty, with Maria noticing that Fury, Coulson, and May must have slipped out earlier, which made her disheartened; wanting to know where the two agents were feeling with regards to her and her actions.

Maria then turned back to Hope; losing her train of worried thought as soon as her eyes fell back onto her precious smiling face, captivated by the dimples on her cheeks. Maria then leaned in for another kiss, where Hope wrapped her arms around her, pressing up against Maria's body, fully engaging in the activity, as Maria pushed her tongue inside Hope's mouth, searching for its companion, as Hope let out a moan; causing Maria to tighten her hold around her. Trying to touch every inch of her body to Hope's.

After a heated moment, Maria broke the kiss to mutter into her mouth, "that was for saving me from the giant bugs." She then pressed her lips back to Hope's while the woman giggled at her words; cutting off her laughter as she deepening their kiss even more. She then repeated her actions, again, speaking into her mouth, "and that was for saving me from myself."

Hope pushed their foreheads together, as she traced Maria's lips with her thumb, lightly panting for air as she said, "yeah, you're definitely your own worst enemy." Maria opened her eyes to see Hope smiling at her. "In the time I've known you, you've tried to destroy yourself twice. And that's only what I'm aware of. God only knows what you get up to when I'm not around."

Maria knew she meant it light-heartedly, but her comment really hit her. It wasn't that Maria was a danger to herself that had bothered her, it was that she was a danger to Hope. Afterall, it was Hope who was the one who almost died in the infirmary after Maria had gone kamikaze in a helicopter, just like how it was Hope who was the one who went up against a powerful alien creature, when Maria recklessly went behind enemy lines.

"Hey," Hope looked to her with concern. "What is it?"

Maria pulled her head away as she simply asked, "can we get out of here?"

"Absolutely," Hope grabbed a hold of Maria's hand. "Do you want to go out with the gang, or go home?"

Maria, realising that her New York residence was now a pile of ash along with the rest of the Avengers Tower, said flatly, "I don't have a home here."

"Don't worry about that. I've got you covered," Hope said as she dragged her knuckles gently down Maria's jawline. Maria had assumed that she'd meant that she had a hotel room or possibly even a piece of real estate in the city, that they could go to.

The truth was, Maria was beginning to feel drained; needing a place to wash off her prison experience and collapse into the arms of the woman whom she'd loved, all while trying to push away the guilt that was starting to bubble up once again. "Please take me to place with a shower and a bed big enough for the two of us."

Hope softly smiled at her as she said, "I've got just the place," and with that she pulled her by the hand to follow her out.


	23. Twenty-Third

Within a half hour, Hope had driven them into a shipping yard, brightly lit by the afternoon sun, where, to Maria's glee, there, next to a large stack of containers, was their lab.

"You brought your place with you?"

"Yeah," Hope smirked, pulling up to the building to park.

When they got out of the car, Hope shrunk her vehicle and picked it up to bring with them. Grabbing Maria's hand; guiding her inside.

Once the elevator doors opened, revealing the familiar apartment, Hope smiled as she innocently said, "We're home," which almost made Maria cry; really wanting the apartment with Hope inside of it, to be her home forever. She then turned to Maria as she asked, "You still want a shower and a bed?" Maria nodded. "How about something to eat?"

Maria couldn't even tell if she was hungry or not. She simply said, "shower," while her vocabulary became more limited as her energy felt more and more depleted with every passing minute.

"Okay," Hope said as she pushed loose locks of Maria's hair behind her ear. "let's go," she gently pulled her to the back and into the master bedroom.

Hope let go of her hand as she said, "you'll need a change of clothes," and moved to her closet; opening it. "What would you like to wear after your shower? I'm thinking something comfy, yeah?"

Maria took a few steps towards her, but instead of looking at the clothes, her eyes had glazed over while looking through the window off into the distance across the water. The Statue of Liberty was in full view, now under construction. The sight triggered the memories of the moments when she'd given the orders to attack, not only the statue, but all of the small S.H.I.E.L.D. bases within North America and Europe too.

"You are not paying attention to me at all, so I'm just going to choose for you," she dimly heard Hope say, as she moved about in her closet and inside various drawers.

Soon Maria could feel Hope's calming presence as she approached her. She then slowly wrapped her hand around her forearm as she murmured, "She'll be back to her former glory in no time." Maria continued to stare out the window, watching a crane bringing up materials to the workers on the arm of the statute. Hope began to gently take the twist out of Maria's hair, where she proceeded to pull out her elastic. Hope then combed her fingers through Maria's dry, filmy hair, that suffered through too many washings with a bar of soap. "Come," Hope gently pulled her arm, guiding her into the washroom; picking up the pile of clothes that she had gathered off the corner of the dresser as they passed by it.

Hope put the clothes on top of the vanity before she let go of Maria to start rummaging through her lower cabinet under the sink. "You can use anything you need. Feel free to go through here if I've forgotten anything." She pulled out a new toothbrush, still in its packaging, a new razor, and a towel, also placing them on top of the counter. "Think you'll have to use my deodorant," she opened the medicine cabinet, adding said item to the pile, "'cause I don't seem to have a fresh one."

Maria nodded, "okay," her words sounding hollow even to her own ears. Hope turned to her, studying her where Maria could see that she was concerned by her current melancholy state. "Thank you," Maria said in a small yet sincere voice.

Hope nodded, stepping to her as she kissed her lovingly on the cheek before walking out. As she closed the bathroom door behind her, she said, "I'll be right outside if you need me."

Once she was alone Maria closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath, before she opened them to strip down and hop into the shower.

She'd forgotten how nice it was to bathe without being watched like an animal on display, as well as the experience of using the appropriate hygiene products for her body. The aroma around her from the scent of the conditioner while she washed her hair was intoxicating. It smelled just like Hope. Now the scent of her own hair would remind her of the other woman. Which was a huge improvement, to say the least, from the musky bar soap that she'd become accustomed to smelling.

Once she was done trying to scrub the feeling of traitor off of her skin, finding no success in her endeavors, she turned off Hope's fancy rain shower and stepped out onto the towel that she had thrown on the ground. She moved to the vanity, looking at herself in the mirror, barely recognising her own reflection. She looked gaunt; her body was thin and her face was hollow. She touched the side of her torso, noticing that the bruising was now gone. Though, she could still feel the discomfort of where the guard had kicked her. She took in a deep breath, realising that she hadn't changed her feelings about the injury; still believing that she had very much deserved it, as well as all her other beatings.

Maria then pushed herself along, brushing her teeth, gliding on deodorant, and putting on the fresh pair of underwear that was given to her. She'd then proceeded to throw on the pair of black LuluLemon sweatpants and the grey racerback tank top that Hope had lent her, not bothering to put her bra back on.

She then hung her floor towel and threw a smaller one around her shoulders, allowing her wet hair to drip onto it; not having the energy to deal with anything else.

Maria exited the bathroom to find Hope, out of her suit jacket, barefoot sitting on the bed, up against the headboard, with her phone in hand. The woman was quick to get to her feet; putting her phone on the end table. "Clothes seem to fit you alright. Do you feel okay in them or do you want to wear something else?"

Maria shook her head, "they're fine."

Hope looked at her softly as she asked, "What do you feel you need?"

Maria had the desire to collapse, eyeing the inviting looking blankets sprawled across Hope's comfortable mattress. "Bed," Maria muttered.

Hope turned to grab a hair brush from off of her dresser before she went to Maria's side; hooking her arm around here to guide her to sit down next to her on the edge of the bed. Wordlessly, Hope started gently drying Maria's hair with the towel before she began to brush it. Maria closed her eyes; basking in the feeling of the touch that sent a warmth throughout her body and a tingle down her neck.

Soon Hope had placed the towel on the pillow at the top of the bed; throwing the brush on the ground, before she wrapped her arms around Maria, easing her to lay down on her back with her head falling onto the covered pillow. Hope had her arm tucked underneath Maria's neck, with her weight on her elbow, as she lay on her side, pressed up close to Maria's body. She threw her long hair behind her shoulder before she studied Maria. "Are you sleepy?" She eventually asked; her head hovering over top of Maria's.

"I'm something," Maria couldn't even comprehend her own state of being.

"Emotionally exhausted?"

"Yeah," she conceded to the notion, "I'd say that sounds pretty accurate."

"Then we'll just stay right here," Hope reached to her face, sweeping her hand gently down from her forehead to her cheek.

Maria felt so safe and loved as she asked, "can we stay here forever?"

Hope smiled as she answered, "absolutely."

Maria reached up to Hope's face, the back of her fingers brushing over her cheek as she got lost in all of the woman's faded freckles. They weren't prominent on her skin, but Maria was still captivated by the way they were faintly peppered about on her gorgeous face. Maria's hand then brushed down to Hope's jawline, following it, where she then moved her thumb to sweep over the dimple at her chin. Maria had always been so mesmerized by the woman's beauty, but this was the first time that she'd had the opportunity to fully take it all in; memorising not only every freckle, wrinkle, and dimple, but the texture of her soft skin underneath her touch, as she etched her features into her memory to keep forever.

Maria couldn't believe Hope was there in front of her, that she hadn't abandoned her, even after all that she'd put her through.

"Maria, baby," Hope muttered as she combed Maria's long bangs to the side of her face, "are you alright?"

"I don't deserve you," Maria said so softly that she could barely hear her own words, before she looked into Hope's olive eyes.

Hope looked horrified as she asked, "What are you talking about?"

"You're just so supportive and perfect and all I seem to do is bring you misery."

"What! I'm not perfect, and you donotbring me misery," she countered back adamantly.

"Yes I do. I brought trouble to your lab, I put you in the infirmary for days, I messed your relationship up with both Scott and your dad, I betrayed you as an Avenger and then abandoned you for prison, and--

"Okay, okay, stop. Literally all of those things are blown way out of context, and you know it." Hope took a hold of the hand that was still at her face, pushing her mouth to Maria's palm, kissing it lovingly before she said, "you need to stop beating yourself up. You're in a stupor trying to find anything to cling on to so you can keep punishing yourself."

"But--"

"No buts," Hope cut her off before leaning down to cup her face and ever so softly kiss her lips. "You bring me peace, not misery," she murmured into her mouth.

Maria felt the sincerity of her words through her loving kiss, and yet she was still distressed. She still didn't feel worthy of her, nor could she shake all her guilt, especially for what she'd done to the people who she was responsible for at S.H.I.E.L.D. The people who had lost their lives because of her.

She could feel Hope lift her head away from hers, her breath now no longer hitting her lips. Maria couldn't bring herself to open her eyes; her past shame starting to haunt her present remorse. "I'm going to need an update on your status here. Where are you now?" Hope asked softly, as she gently stroked her thumb over Maria's cheek.

She opened her eyes, seeing a gentle expression on Hope's face. "I just…," Maria sighed, shaking her head, "it's just like how it felt when I was a kid, all over again." Maria's thoughts fell back to the first house that she could remember living in, it was a drafty shack of a place that still lurked into her nightmares from time to time. "Like I'm back in that horribly cold house in Chicago," her eyes shifted away from Hope's; her gaze now fixed on the bedroom door, "there with my dad and his constant shouting," she closed her eyes; hearing him in her head, "always yelling at me about how it's all my fault."

"What's all your fault?"

"My mother's death."

"You're mother's death?" Maria could hear the confusion in her voice. "But I thought she--"

"Was alive to kick me out of my brother's funeral?" Maria opened her eyes: looking back to her, "yeah, that was technically my step-mom, my dad remarried when I was seven." She'd recalled back to when the woman had entered into their lives, Maria had ironically seen her as her guardian angel at the time, because after she'd married her father, and they all had moved into their new house together, he had stopped smacking Maria around. It wasn't until later that she'd come to know her as the most emotionally manipulative person she'd ever met, who'd treated her like an inconvenience, especially after her brother was born. "She's the only mother I ever knew," Maria added.

"Oh."

"My biological mother died in childbirth." Maria heavily sighed, "my dad had convinced me as a kid that it was my fault, and I carried the guilt of her death for years," Maria swallowed hard as she closed her eyes, "I feel like that again. Like he's right here screaming into my ear that they're all dead and it's all my fault."

"Oh, god," Hope muttered, aghast as she pulled Maria into her body; rolling her over onto her side until the weight of Maria's torso fell up against hers. Hope wrapped her up close, even throwing her leg around her lower body, as she sunk her fingers into Maria's damp hair; pulling her head into her shoulder. Maria clung to the other woman's body before Hope moved her face to quietly talk into her ear. "Would it help any if I went to Chicago, shot your dad with my blaster, and trapped him inside a mason jar? Then maybe his screaming wouldn't be so loud."

Suddenly Maria's internal voice of her father had shifted from a hair-standing vocal assault, into a humorous chirping, which made her instantly smirk. "Make him sound like a chipmunk stuck inside a hollow tree."

"Yeah," Maria could hear the smile in Hope's voice.

"And we could shake the shit out of the jar when his squeaks get to be too much."

"We'll just make the mason jar into a snow globe. Have a little fun with it."

"I want the snow to be pink sparkles though. His toxic masculinity would have a field day in that."

"You know, I think Cassie has some unicorn stickers. Maybe she'd lend a hand and decorate the outside of the jar for us."

Maria chuckled at Hope's suggestion, suddenly feeling leagues better, like Hope had trapped her current destructive thoughts inside of that jar. She then pulled her head away from Hope's grasp where she slid her hand to lovingly place it atop of Hope's cheek, as she slowly pressed her mouth to hers.

The kiss was so tender, as they lay side by side, slowly drinking in each other's love. Maria still couldn't believe just how much she felt for Hope; like this other woman had unlocked this whole new spectrum of emotions within her that she was now experiencing for the first time.

Their kiss grew lazier with time as Maria's emotional exhaustion was taking over her body, turning into physical burnout. Eventually Hope allowed her lips to fall away, only to gently kiss Maria's forehead. "Don't fall asleep on me here," Hope spoke into her skin, "I want to get some food into you."

"I don't need to eat," Maria muttered.

"You do," Hope lowered her hand, as she glided her palms along the side of her uninjured torso, "you're practically skin and bones here. You definitely lost weight over the past couple months." Maria knew she was right, she'd barely eaten the whole time that she was in prison, as well as the weeks leading up to it. "So you're going to have to tell me what you want to eat."

Maria muttered, "I don't know," while still refusing to open her eyes.

"Come on, you've gotta give me something here. I can literally make anything."

"Anything?"

"Try me. And I guarantee it'll be delicious," Hope said in a cocky manner.

Maria smirked, now needing to see Hope's confident face as she opened her eyes. "Do you have mad cooking skills?"

Hope chuckled, "the maddest," as she eyed her; gliding the back of her index finger across Maria's lips.

Maria smiled as she pondered over what she thought her stomach could handle, finally settling on a dish that she'd always enjoyed as a teenager, that she hadn't had in years. "Carrot ginger soup," she finally decided.

Hope's face broke into a beautiful smile as she repeated, "carrot ginger soup. I can do that."

"You have the ingredients?"

"I should have enough carrots but I don't have fresh ginger," she then scrunched her face in disgust, "and I refuse to make it with powder, so I'm gonna call 1-800-mom to go pick some up for us."

"Your mom's here?"

"Of course. She was so annoyed that she wasn't allowed to attend your trial. She made us text her as soon as we could, to tell her the verdict."

Maria was once again overwhelmed by Janet's love and support. Hope got onto her elbow to reach over Maria to grab her phone off of the nightstand.

"You don't have to bother her though. I'll have something else," Maria felt guilty, not wanting to put Janet out.

"She insisted we call her if we needed anything," Hope started to type, evidently choosing to text rather than call, "Trust me, it'll make her happy knowing she's helping you. Even if it's just a ginger run."

"Your mom's amazing," Maria was still taken aback by how nurturing Janet was.

"She really is," Hope threw her phone at the foot of the bed, once she was done typing. She then looked back down to Maria, "so, I'm going to start cutting carrots, you can stay here and rest if you'd like."

"I can help," Maria had insisted; not ready to be left alone, "I'm really good at bringing water to a boil, and then watching the water as it's boiling."

"Oh yeah," Hope laughed, "that may come in handy."

"Good," Maria started to lift herself up into a sitting position, where Hope had helped her. "but I have to warn you, once things are put into the boiling water, I might get a little lost."

Hope giggled at her, "it's okay, I'll help you navigate through carrot filled troubled waters."

Maria smiled at her silly play on the famous phrase, "You're such a dork."

Hope smacked her shoulder in response just as her phone buzzed. She then picked it up, reading it as she crawled out of bed. "Kay, she's heading out now to get the ginger. She said she'll only be about twenty minutes, which makes sense, there's a grocery store just down the road from here." Standing up, she reached over to Maria, "come boil some water for me, my sous chef."

Maria grinned at her as she grabbed her hand; where Hope pulled her up, but as she did, Maria felt a sharp pain in her ribs, which made her involuntarily retract into herself. She hissed in response as she sat on the edge of the bed, grabbing at the injured area.

"Oh, shit, what did I do?" Hope dropped to her knees in front of her.

"Nothing, You did nothing," Maria looked up to her, "it's nothing," she tried to stand up, but Hope pushed her down by the shoulders, making her weight drop back onto the mattress.

"Yeah, no. You're not going anywhere," Hope demanded, as she slowly lifted Maria's shirt. She then gently pushed Maria's hand, that was at her ribs, away; replacing it with her own.

"Don't worry about it. It only hurts if I move in the wrong way." Hope then pushed down on the area, making her wince, "or if you do that."

"What happened?" Hope asked with great concern, keeping her hand in place, while she looked to Maria's face. Maria shook her head, not wanting to say it out loud that she'd been beaten in prison. Hope seemed to have understood as she asked in hurt anger, "how often did this happen?"

"Hope," Maria closed her eyes, begging for her to stop asking about it.

Maria heard her sigh before she stood up; sitting herself on the bed next to her. She then wrapped her arms around her, where she continued to slowly lay her on her back. She then pushed Maria's shirt up again to better inspect her side. "We should get this checked out, you might have a fracture," Hope placed her hand over the area, pushing lightly as she moved along her ribcage.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure I do. It's been too long now, and it's still not healed." Maria then gently took hold of Hope's wrist, lifting her hand off of her body. "But there's no need to get it x-rayed, they can't do anything about a cracked rib anyway."

Hope sighed as she seemed annoyed by her dismissal of the injury. "You're a horrible patient."

"You sound just like Jane."

"Maria," Hope said so gently as she locked onto her gaze, where Maria had noticed that the woman was distraught by the fact that she was beaten in prison.

Maria lightly sighed, realising that she had to allow Hope the opportunity to care about her, even if she herself didn't feel the same way about her situation. She then slowly placed Hope's hand back onto her sore side; surrendering to the other woman's wishes.

Hope gave her a small smile in acknowledgment of her actions before Maria said, "You know what would really help?"

"What?"

"Soup."

Hope softly chuckled before she nodded, "okay." She then assisted Maria back into a sitting position, where she took the opportunity to give her another soft yet intimate kiss.

Maria smiled into her lips as she said, "this really helps too."

Maria then tried to initiate another kiss, but Hope pulled back, as she playfully asked, "do you have a prescription? If you need a refill on your medication, you're going to have to provide one," she smiled at her mischievously.

"You call me a horrible patient, but really it's you who's the horrible caregiver. You know what? I'm writing a negative Yelp review on your services."

"Oh yeah?" Hope eyed her, "What is it gonna say?"

"I went to see my pharmacist, Dr. Van Dyne under false pretenses, thinking that she was a kind individual; just wanting to help the people. But she revealed her true nature when she suddenly refused to continue providing me with my medication," Maria referenced the woman's kisses, "a medication that, if not received on a regular basis, could cause me todie!"

Hope snorted out a laugh before she shook her head, "you're ridiculous." She then stood up and eased Maria to her feet, this time being overly cautious; treating her like glass.

"I'm really not going to break," Maria assured her.

"Yeah, I'm not so much worried about you, as I am my Yelp review. Don't need you adding more negative things to it." Maria grinned at her before Hope took her by the hand, leading her into the kitchen.

* * *

Hope pulled her hair out of her face with the elastic that she always kept around her wrist. She still couldn't put her ponytails as high as she normally liked them, due to the length of hair at her surgery spot, which was still too short to tie back unless the hair was gathered right on top of the anomaly area.

She'd then quickly washed her hands before busying herself; pulling out everything that she'd need while Maria watched her. Soon she placed a cutting board and a knife in front of the other woman on the island, saying, "Okay, I know I said I'd let you boil water, but we actually need to sauté the carrots and onions before we bring the stock to a simmer."

"A simmer?" She sighed in humorous exaggeration, "I don't know if I can handle that. You're throwing a curveball at me here."

Hope chuckled before she said, "think of it as a soft boil. I believe you'll be able to manage that just fine, Commander." It was clear that Maria was biting down a grin, which was such a relief for Hope to see; watching her come out of her stupor. "So, you're going to help me cut veggies first," Hope opened the bag of carrots for Maria before putting an onion in front of herself to cut up. "And I know you know how to use a knife."

Maria picked up the mentioned item as she said, "handles for holding, blades for stabbing. Unless you're throwing, then blades for holdingandblades for embedding."

"I swear to god, Maria," Hope pointed a carrot at her, with a warning tone, "if you throw my Böker knife, you will not live long enough to eat this soup."

Maria chuckled at her as she grabbed the carrot out of her hand, before she started to neatly slice it up on the cutting board.

Maria and Hope fell into a comfortable silence as they chopped away at onions and carrots. Unfortunately, though, after some time passed, Hope had noticed Maria's goofy mood diminishing. She could see the weight she'd been carrying, crushing her once again.

Maria had finished cutting her last carrot when she'd started to disassociate again, with eyes glossing over, looking out over the apartment. Hope didn't know what to do or say, so she just watched her. Fixing her gaze onto the most beautiful woman she'd ever seen. The woman who made her laugh and who made her cry. The woman who she loved more than any other person before her, and the woman who was being tortured by guilt right in front of her eyes.

Suddenly both of their attention was pulled in the direction of the elevator as the doors opened, revealing Janet as she came walking in with a plastic grocery bag in hand.

Hope noticed her mother instantly lock her gaze onto the agent as her face broke into a heartwarming smile, "Maria," she practically sang while she made her way over to them.

Janet quickly put the bag onto the counter, pulling out the small root, handing it to Hope, with her eyes still on the other woman, "some ginger for my Jellybean." She then reached over the counter, taking Maria's hand, where she guided her around the island to stand right in front of her, "and a summer pumpkin for my Pumpkin." The older woman handed Maria this adorably small sugar pumpkin, no bigger than a grapefruit, from the bag. Maria gently took the item in both hands, staring down at it in confusion. "I didn't know the appropriate thing to give to someone who just got out of prison, but when I saw that little guy," Janet pointed to the squash, "I knew that's what I wanted to give to you."

The most precious smile came across Maria's face, as a tear escaped down her cheek. "Thank you," Maria looked to her, like she wasn't talking about the pumpkin at all, but something else entirely. Hope wondered if it had something to do with whatever her mother had written in that letter for her.

"Oh my, Pumpkin," Janet threw her arms around Maria, "I'm so glad you made it back to us." The woman rubbed her back where Maria was quick to nestle right into the embrace, while holding the squash by the stem in her one hand that had found a home around Janet's back.

Hope covered her mouth with her hand trying to keep herself from crying, now having an even greater understanding of what her mom's love for Maria would have meant to her.

Janet eventually pushed Maria back, where she studied the woman while running her hands down her thin arms. "Look at you, you're so skinny." She then glanced over to her daughter, "Hope, you're making her more than just soup, aren't you?"

"I don't know," she shook her head; realising that her mother was right. Maria should probably have something else to go with her carrot dish.

"How about some homemade biscuits?" Janet looked back to Maria, "I'll make you some."

"Flour and baking powder are in there," Hope kicked out her foot to point at the appropriate cupboard.

"She didn't even let you respond. Did you notice that?" Janet smirked at Maria. "Hope used to beg me to make these all the time when she was a kid." She started off to where Hope had gestured to as she gave her daughter a look. "Nice to see things haven't changed."

Hope turned to Maria as she exaggeratedly mouthed, "They are so good," where Maria chuckled at her.

While Janet started making dough, Hope poured broth over the sautéd vegetables. Just as she reached for the dial, wanting to turn down the burner, Maria burst out, "What are you doing?" Hope looked over to her in confusion as Maria narrowed her eyes at her, "you told me I get to simmer." Hope grinned at her as Maria stepped over. "I get to turn the knob."

"Fine," Hope threw up her hands in surrender, finding her annoyingly adorable in that moment, as she stepped back from the stove where Maria proceeded to reduce the heat.

"Hope, are you being a bull in the kitchen again?"

"No!" Hope blurted defensively.

Janet looked to Maria, "when she was a kid she used to do that to me too, like all the time. Just completely take over when we were cooking."

"Not all the time."

The eldest woman then nodded at Maria, as to say, it was a constant occurrence. Maria smiled with amusement. Janet then recalled out loud, "one day the two of us were about to make lasagna together --Hope must have been about eight at the time-- and we pulled out all the ingredients, ready to go, but then I was called away for an Ant-Man/Wasp mission. So I told her we'd make it later when I got back." Janet eyed Hope like she were still aghast as she continued, "But when I got home, low and behold, there was a fully cooked lasagna sitting there right on top of the counter," the woman was now nearly laughing as she'd continued. "And I knew the little brat had done it all on her own, because if she'd gotten help from our housekeeper, the kitchen wouldn't have looked like a war zone." Maria instantly laughed where Janet joined in with her.

"Okay, okay, but was the lasagna good?" Hope asked, full well knowing the answer, as she crossed her arms in annoyance towards the two who were having way too much fun at her expense.

Janet sighed in glee, "that's the best part. It tasted better than any lasagna I'd ever made." Maria turned to look at Hope, a sparkling smile on her face, which made Hope weak. She'd instantly given up on her pride as she chuckled along with them.

Hope couldn't remember feeling this happy, she was not only back in the kitchen with her mother, a past time that she'd always cherished, but Maria was there with them too. Like she couldn't imagine being in that kitchen without her.

"So," Janet said after they'd all settled down a bit while she finished up kneading the dough, "I met another pair at the store today," she turned to her daughter.

Hope scrunched her face in confusion, "A pair?"

"Two people with a shared particle frequency." The woman then grabbed the baking sheet from off of the other counter that Hope had already put out for her. "Teenagers," she added while she started balling up dough pieces to place them on the sheet. "I'm pretty sure they were sisters." She then smiled, "The older one gave some of her own money to the younger one so she could buy some candy. It was precious."

Hope was very intrigued to hear about her experience, as she asked, "Are they the only other ones you've seen?" Curious as to what other pairs of people were like her and Maria.

"No. I saw an elderly couple about a month ago." She sighed, shaking her head, "But I didn't have the heart to tell you about them at the time, because of the whole… well you know," she said awkwardly, where her daughter had known that she was referring to Maria's time in prison, when Hope had kind of lost herself.

"Wait, what are you guys talking about?" Maria looked back and forth between them, "What's a shared particle frequency?"

Janet gawked toward her daughter as she threw her hands to her hips, "Hope Veronica Doris Pym, did you not tell Maria?"

"I- ah," Hope stuttered, "I didn't really get the chance to yet," she lied. The truth being, she'd been scared to tell Maria. Scared that somehow it was all just some weird coincidence, and that Maria didn't actually feel the crazy strong connection that Hope had to her. Though, Maria's love declaration had given her more confidence in the phenomenon than she'd had before.

Maria studied Hope's face before looking to Janet, "tell me what?"

Janet caught Hope's eyes, knowing that she was searching for her permission to fill Maria in, where Hope simply nodded to her, giving her approval. "I can see particle frequencies," Janet addressed Maria, "and sometimes, on rare occasions, I see people who share the exact same frequency," she then smirked, "Like you two," she pointed back and forth between them. "The building blocks of your beings match up to each other. I theorise this phenomenon is what some philosophers have described as soulmates." Maria looked dumbfounded as she slowly turned towards Hope, which made her heart start racing with nerves.

"You know what?" Janet quickly said, obviously noticing the tension in the room. "I'm going to leave these biscuits here for you guys to finish up. All you have to do is roll a few more and bake them for about ten minutes." she moved to the other side of the counter as she added, "Scott invited me to lunch with the Avengers, so I think I'm going to go catch up with them."

"Wait, Mom," Hope called as Janet was already making her way across the room.

"Yes?" She turned to her.

Hope stared at her for a second, realising that she'd addressed her out of panic, without having something in mind to say. "Ah, thank you," she finally said; meaning it entirely. She'd been such a godsend to her for not only that day, but the past couple of months too.

She smiled, "you're welcome," and went to the elevator and loading in. "Maria," Janet called to her just as the doors were closing, "make sure you eat lots," and then she was gone.

Hope focused back over to Maria who was still looking off towards the elevator, with that same blank expression on her face, which was making Hope's nerves go wild.

"Maria?" she timidly said, hoping to get her to respond.

"I just can't believe it," Maria shook her head.

"It's just a theory," Hope blurted in a panic, "she could be totally wrong."

"No," Maria said as she turned to her. "Not about that." She took a step towards her where she grabbed a hold of Hope's hand; dropping her head to focus on her action. "I just can't believe that I found you." She started playing with Hope's fingers, eyes still glued to their hands, "I really did think, with my whole being, that I'd be alone forever." Maria then looked up, making Hope's breath hitch in the back of her throat, as she locked her gaze with her own. "But then one day you showed up, crushed my windpipe a couple times, called me a cold bitch, and everything changed." Hope couldn't help but quietly chuckle at her choice of words. "I knew you were different."

"Because I was yours." Hope insisted, taking a step closer to Maria. "From the moment you sat down across from me in that restaurant, and you looked at me with your impossibly blue eyes," Hope reached out to Maria, taking her chin in her hand, "you already had me."

They were staring at each other so intensely; Maria's eyes glistening with tears, as she then pushed their palms flat together, before she folded her fingers over the back of Hope's hand; gripping tightly where she then gently pushed her mouth to Hope's, kissing her.

Hope had instantly gotten lost in her touch, yet again. Her lips were like a euphoric drug to her soul. They let go of each other's hands just to wrap their arms around the other's body; never wanting to let go.

They eventually broke for air as they dropped their foreheads together. "Does this mean I get to keep you forever?" Maria asked her as she lightly panted.

"You're going to have to. I didn't come with a receipt, so you can't return me."

"Good," Maria smiled just before she captured Hope's lips once again.

Hope giggled into their kiss; beyond elated in that moment as she soaked in the knowledge that she was going to spend the rest of her days with her soulmate.

"I need to add the ginger to the soup," Hope eventually said as she pulled away from Maria. "I have to finish making this food so you can eat," Hope turned away so that she could start grating some of the root into the pot; hating to break away from Maria, but knowing that feeding her was a necessity.

"I didn't say you could go," Maria said in annoyance, as she moved to stand behind Hope, wrapping her arms around her waist while pushing her cheek up against the side of Hope's head. The woman had to bite down a giggle as she fully welcomed the embrace that would still allow her to cook.

She continued to work with Maria's arms around her, refusing to let go of her; only detaching when Hope had to put the biscuits into the oven.

Not long after, they both sat down to eat. Hope had been so pleased with the amount of food Maria had consumed, and the fact that she seemed to really enjoy the meal.

Soon they found themselves on Hope's yellow sofa, bellies full. Hope was reclined out, with her feet on the ottoman, book in hand, where Maria was stretched out across the chesterfield, her head on a pillow that was resting on Hope's lap, passed out from a food coma.

Hope could barely concentrate on her readings, as she was too distracted by Maria's faint, adorable snores. So she decided to put her book down, only to comb Maria's hair back while she soon found a new fixation on the woman's left hand, that was resting on her thigh. She then reached over to gently rub at Maria's ring finger; not liking how naked it looked. Determined that something would have to be done in due time to remedy that situation.


	24. Twenty-Fourth

"Can't believe she showed up."

"She's got some nerve."

"Murderer come to look down over her victim."

"She never should've been released. She deserves to rot behind bars."

"Bars? She deserves a bullet to the head."

Maria looked over her shoulder to the talking heads, as she walked up the aisle, seeing Agents May, Coulson, and Morse all snarling about her loudly amongst themselves.

Stopping at the front of the sanctuary, before the open casket, she looked down to find Jemma Simmons laying inside of it, skin pale as a ghost.

"Who ever thought you'd be the most incompetent agent amongst us all?" Maria turned to see Daisy Johnson standing next to her. "You had to kill your own because you were too stupid to think up a proper plan."

"Daisy, I--"

"Murderer!" the woman growled; shoving her inside the coffin.

Suddenly it was Hank, not Daisy, who was standing over her. He then scowled at her, "you won't be able to kill my daughter, like you did the others. Not if you're six feet under," where he then crashed the lid shut on her.

Maria cranked her head to the side, seeing Jemma's face mummify in front of her from inside of the dimly lit coffin. Maria then started to frantically push up at the lid but her strength had dissipated, as she quickly became paralysed. She tried to scream but nothing came out, so she just whimpered out in panic; attempting to move but failing as she started to hyperventilate.

"Maria?" She could hear Hope groan out, as a mass knocked up against her chest.

Maria opened her eyes, finding herself in Hope's bed. Her breath fell short as she lightly heaved. Her skin felt tight with goosebumps and raised hairs, like she could still feel Jemma's rotting corpse touching her.

Her attention was soon pulled toward Hope as the woman tried to turn around in her arms and face her, but Maria was quick to tighten her grip around her torso to keep her steady; her back securely up against her chest.

"Shh," Maria managed to get out before she dipped her head to kiss her bare shoulder, which was exposed by her spaghetti-strap pyjama top, "go back to sleep, my love," she mumbled as she was shaking in her own skin; trying to lull her back into a slumber, not wanting to bother her. Hope didn't deserve to be treated as her emotional liferaft; always having to watch over her. The last thing Maria wanted to do was have Hope carry the weight of her shame.

Maria dropped her forehead to the shoulder that she'd just kissed, trying to calm herself down without alerting Hope. She closed her eyes, taking calming breaths as she attempted to push the haunting dream out of her head. She focused on Hope's deep breathing, as the other woman seemed to have fallen back asleep. Where as, on the contrary, Maria now found herself wide awake and properly disturbed; needing to busy herself from her own terrifying thoughts.

She gently, once again, pushed her lips to the back of Hope's shoulder, almost in tears, as her mind dwelled on the words that Hank had said to her in her dream; terrified of them holding any truth. She then broke the kiss as she let go of her and rolled over, noting the time on the alarm clock as being a quarter to four in the morning, while quietly crawling out of bed. She looked back to see Hope, who was passed out, now scared for her wellbeing, before exiting the room.

Maria folded her arms over her chest, a little chilled in her tank top, as she wandered about the apartment. She soon found herself washing the pot from their soup that they'd left to soak, thinking back to their day together in that apartment.

They'd barely moved from the sofa. Even after Maria's nap they'd remained there cuddled up close talking about the books Hope had read with movie adaptations that Maria had seen. It wasn't that Maria was entirely unread, it was just a lot easier, and required less energy, for her to relax with a tablet and pair of headphones between studying mission files on a transport craft, rather than read a book. Maria had absolutely loved just talking about fictional worlds that she had absolutely no ties to. It had eased her mind just to escape, while simultaneously feeling grounded with Hope wrapped up in her arms.

Once Maria was finished with the washing up, she quickly became restless again and decided to travel downstairs, needing to preoccupy herself somehow. She still couldn't shake all of the voices from her dream.

She ended up in their lab, which was partially illuminated, with only a few lights on. She scanned the place looking for any of their oversized insects walking about, but saw none. Suddenly she heard clanging that was emanating from the far end of the lab, behind the quantum bridge. Curious, she walked towards the sound, hoping that it wasn't an ant. When she rounded the corner she was surprised to see Scott there, head in a large panel, wires sticking out everywhere.

"Whatcha doing?" Maria asked him.

Scott jumped, spinning around to face her, "Oh, gah!" He grabbed his chest, "you scared me."

"Sorry."

"No, it's fine," he shook his head as he dropped his hand. "Ah," he looked to what he was previously doing, "I'm trying to fix up the electrical system. Some of the parts they installed here weren't exactly compatible with each other, so they had to get creative." He threw his hands on his hips as he studied the panel, "But I think I can change some stuff around and make it more efficient."

"And you decided to do this at, like, four in the morning?"

"It's already four?" He whipped his head around to look at her. "Guess I should probably go to bed soon. I just wanted to finish this up first."

Maria studied the panel, quickly understanding what he was doing; having the urge to get in there and help. "Want a hand?"

"I mean, I'll have to give you the rundown of what I'm doing." Maria took his comment as permission and stepped in to disconnect a circuit to plug it into a work around system that she'd assumed Scott had just made. "Or maybe I don't, 'cause you seem to know exactly what you're doing," he said in a tone of surprise. "Is electrical work a normal thing S.H.I.E.L.D. commander's do?"

"Mechanical work has always been prevalent in my life, and there's always an electrical component to that," Maria explained as she kept working on the panel with Scott stepping back to allow her to do so.

"Mechanical as in vehicles?"

"Mostly, yeah. My neighbour, growing up, was building his own car. He'd often let me help; taught me a lot," she smirked to herself, remembering her time in his garage fondly. "Then later, when I enlisted, I just built on what I learned from him, and was able to save my ass on a few different occasions because of it."

"Did you ever hotwire an enemy tank?"

She laughed at his ridiculous question as she informed him, "tanks don't use keys."

"They don't?"

"Most armour support vehicles don't. Not even the Jeeps. They're all push start."

"What!" He looked at her like she'd just blown his mind, which she couldn't help but chuckle at. She found it very amusing how completely clueless Scott seemed to be at times.

Maria then stepped away from the panel, absent mindedly rubbing her chilled arms as she studied the system, to see what else needed to be done.

"Cold?"

"Huh?" Maria's turned to him, realising that she was hugging herself, trying to stay warm. "Oh, I'm fine," she said, knowing her slight chill was nothing in comparison to the cold she'd felt at various points in her life.

He smirked at her, like he knew she was putting on an act, as he turned and took a grey zip up hoodie with maroon sleeves, and passed it to her. "Here, I'm not using it."

"Thanks," she took it, slipping it on and zipping it up. Scott nodded his head at her before turning to the panel, starting to take over where she'd left off.

Maria watched him, thoughts falling onto how he didn't deserve what she'd indirectly done to him. "So," she crossed her arms back over her chest, but this time it was done as a defense mechanism and not because she was cold. "I ah, never did apologies to you."

"Huh?" He turned his head to look at her.

"For --you know-- Hope," she said timidly through the guilt of, essentially, breaking the two of them up.

"Hope?" He looked at her in complete puzzlement for a few seconds before it seemed to click in his head as to what she was talking about. "Oh, no. Okay look," he shook his head like he was completely shocked by her apology. "Everything is as it's supposed to be. Trust me. Me and Hope, we never would have lasted, regardless if she'd met you or not."

"You can't know that."

"No. I can," he insisted where he then smiled to himself. "She's always had this completely different trajectory than me." He shook his head as he said fondly, "She's this brilliant, motivated, badass that's like, made for greatness. Even when we went out on our first official Avengers mission there, she had this look in her eyes, like she found this cosmic calling to fight evil and better the universe."

"To become the Queen Slayer," Maria couldn't help but smirk; remembering that spark in her eyes right after she knocked Steve to the ground during training.

"Yeah," Scott's smile grew in agreement. "I can't keep up with her. And to be perfectly honest, I've never wanted to." He then quickly clarified, "Not because I don't love her, it's just that I've never wanted to devote my entire life to this hero stuff. I actually really like my," he used his fingers to make air quotes, "normal life," he continued, "in San Francisco. Running my security company with my best friend, while trying to be the best dad that I can. That's where I belong," he said like he knew it to his core. "I look at being Ant-Man as just this fun hobby, that doesn't really define me. Where as you and Hope…" he gave her a knowing look, "well you guys want the same thing, to save the world. And I know you can help her reach her full potential, which is something I could never do for her."

His words had unintentionally triggered the memory of her dream; specifically Hank's words. "Yeah, if I don't get her killed in the process," she softly said. Still so frightened that she'd do something stupid again that would end with Hope in a coffin.

"Yeah right!" Scott laughed out, "Says the woman who literally protected mankind from the point of extinction, about the woman who survives everything that's thrown at her like it's nothing." He looked to her as if she were off her rocker as he said, "I'm pretty sure you two will be just fine."

The man's reaction came so unexpectedly that it threw her off. She tilted her head as she studied him. "You have a very unique way of seeing the positive in things, you know that?"

"Well it helps that I'm looking at a positive situation."

"Of your -- according to you-- inevitable breakup with Hope?" She asked in confusion.

"Yeah," his smile never dropped as he explained, "You can't build a life with someone who wants different things than you. So she found what she needed in you, and now I've found what I need in my family back home."

"Yeah?" Maria asked, wanting to make sure that he was being completely honest with her.

"Yeah. Like I said, everything is as it's supposed to be."

Maria smiled at him before she stepped back to the panel. The two then began working together, as she allowed him to lead them in their task.

Eventually Scott had redirected the conversation away from circuits as he said, "So… Cassie keeps asking about you ever since she completed her mission."

"She really pulled through for me there. Not that I'm surprised." Maria just loved that little girl so much.

"I mean, this is the same kid that's always losing her soccer cleats."

"Well keeping track of shoes isn't a top secret S.H.I.E L.D. order now is it?" Maria cheekily asked.

"Well yeah, no that's true," he conceded. "But what if, for some reason, she couldn't get a hold of us? Did you have a backup plan?"

Maria smiled, "No. I knew I wouldn't need one. You always make sure that she can reach you, no matter what, and she knew the importance of the mission. You two were foolproof." He grinned at her before she turned and pointed to the section next to them, "so what's going on with this panel here?"

"Yeah, that's a good question," he looked to it as if he was deep in thought, "I kinda want to leave it for now. See how all these other changes work out before even touching that one."

"Okay. as long as you think it's safe, because I find that whenever Tony says stuff like that, it turns into a fire hazard down the line."

"Oh! speaking of Tony --I totally forgot-- he gave me a cell phone to give to you," he quickly gestured, "It's over there on the table."

Maria went to the mentioned location and picked up the phone. She put in the pass code she already knew he had set up for her. Unlocking the mobile, she noticed two missed calls from him as well as four text messages, all insisting that she call him. Maria sighed as she pressed the call button, putting the phone on speaker as the dial tone emitted throughout the space.

"You're calling him now?" Scott asked in disbelief. "It's the middle of the night."

"He's an insomniac. He'll be up."

Soon Tony's voice was heard from the other end of the line. "Okay, so I'm thinking of making a control tower at the top of the new Avengers Tower," he said without greeting, as was their custom with each other.

"What?"

"The new Avengers Tower," he said as if it were obvious, and that she should have known that he was planning to construct a new one. "So we'll have a penthouse similar to before, but instead of controls being below it, it'll be above it. Then you can have a bigger helicopter pad, so you don't have to constantly complain about how small it is like you did with the last one."

"I mentioned its size once in passing conversation."

"Well whatever it was." Maria couldn't help but smirk; touched that he'd listened to her criticism and remembered it. "The point being, I need you to look over the blueprints before I start construction on the new tower."

"Okay," Maria calmly agreed, but deep down she really appreciated that he wanted her blessing on the project.

"Great, I'll drop by now."

She threw her hand to her hip as she sighed, "Yeah, nice try, Tony."

"I mean, Pym is on the other side of the country, and I'll be in and out quick. It'll be like I was never even there. Just one little peak."

"And what did your favourite auntie say when you pimped out this speech to her?"

"I don't ah-- remember precisely the exact words that she said."

"I didn't ask for the exact words. Paraphrasing will be just fine."

"Something about Hank and the answer being no."

"Uh huh." Maria said dryly. "So, do you even need me to look at these blueprints?" She now wondered if he cared about her opinion, or if he was just wanting to use her to see Pym's lab.

"Yeah, no. I do. They're already saved in your phone there."

"Alright. I'll get back to you on my thoughts once I give them a thorough look through."

"Okay, but could you at least video call me while you happened to be walking through the lab? Or take some pictures--"

"Goodbye, Tony," she rolled her eyes while hanging up the phone on him.

Scott then yawned, "He asked me to take pictures too."

Maria shook her head at Tony's audacity just as Hope came walking over to them, her hair a little messy, where she was wrapped in a housecoat. "There you are," she said in an adorably groggy voice, as she looked to Maria, before gazing over to Scott and his hands full of wires. "What are you guys doing here and so early in the morning?"

"You know, trying to fix your electrical mess," Maria said in a joking manner.

Scott decided to go with it as he continued, "Yeah, she heard my grumbles of frustration and came to assist me. Like an electrical Angel of the night."

"Our electrical is not a mess, it's just a little unorthodox," Hope said grumpily.

Maria then pointed out with her finger, "This whole panel was installed backwards."

"I had to do it that way, those stupid parts didn't work otherwise. And I didn't have time to rewire everything." Maria couldn't help but smile at her as she defended herself so passionately, for something that Maria didn't even fault her for. Hope then seemed to realise that they were just trolling her as she huffed, "You guys suck."

"Don't worry, because of your handy work, we had something to do while we talked about you," Maria smiled.

"Were you telling Scott about how I've never seen a Lord of The Rings movie?" She glared at her with a smirk, as she referenced back to their conversation from the night before, when Maria had made fun of her for missing out on yet another classic movie franchise.

"Wait, you haven't seen those movies either?" Scott looked to her in shock. "I thought your lack of Star Wars viewing was bad enough." He then focused on Maria where she gave him a look of understanding; knowing that his reaction was justified and not far off from her own when she'd first discovered it. "What about the Hobbit movies?" He looked to Hope.

"Movies? As in plural, more than one?"

"There's three of them," He nodded.

"Three?" It was now her turn to show shock. "That book is so short! How are there three of them?" She looked back and forth between the duo.

"You know, I've seen them all and I still can't even answer that question," Scott shrugged.

"They're pretty bad, to be honest," Maria added where Scott tilted his head to the side while raising the corner of his top lip, before he apprehensively nodded at her, like he was shamefully agreeing with her opinion. "The only good thing about them is Tauriel." Maria gazed off as she recalled the gorgeous elf warrior with a deadly bow and arrow, "God, she's so hot in those movies."

"This is true," Scott nodded.

Hope audibly sighed while pinching the bridge of her nose before muttering, "I'm too tired for you two right now."

Maria couldn't help but chuckle as she approached her. "Come on, I'll take you back to bed," she offered softly.

"No, it's okay. I just need a coffee, then I can help you guys."

"Pretty sure Scott's about to pass out any minute now, so maybe we should leave this for later," Maria said before looking over to Scott, wanting a status update from him.

"Honestly, that couch in your dad's old apartment is calling my name," he admitted, eyes now half lidded.

When Maria turned back to Hope, she saw her studying her before saying, "You look wide awake though." She then looked off to their project, "We can take over here while Scott goes to bed," she turned back to her, "if you'd like?"

Maria didn't want to go back to a dark room trapped with her thoughts, but she really wasn't going to mention that to Hope, so she played it cool. "Well, now that I've seen this wiring, I feel distressed just thinking about walking away from it."

Hope chuckled under her breath while shaking her head, "you're the worst."

"Okay, this panel seems to be good now," Scott pushed the matrix of circuits into the wall. "I'll leave you guys to the other one," he pointed to the open panel, sticking out, next to the one that he had said that they shouldn't touch yet. "Goodnight," he yawned as he started off.

"Hey, wait, your sweatshirt," Maria called out to him.

"I'll get it from you later," he turned to her.

Maria couldn't help but smirk at him and his overall generosity and kindness that he had towards her. "Thank you."

"Nothing to thank me for," he smiled back before walking away.

Hope took a step closer to her, reaching to take her hands into her own, which brought Maria's attention to her. "You were having a nightmare, weren't you?" Hope studied her with concern written all over her face. Maria dropped her head, biting her lip, not wanting to respond. "God, and I just fell back asleep!"

"I told you to," Maria looked to her.

"Well I shouldn't have listened," she said, clearly disappointed in herself.

"I wanted you to get some rest. And besides, I found Scott to bug," She said that last part as an attempt to make her feel better; showing her that she wasn't completely reliant on her.

Hope studied her before she asked, "Are you okay?"

"I don't know," Maria sighed.

"You want to be constructive and rewire that panel?"

"Yeah, kind of."

"Okay," Hope nodded with a small smile. "I'm going to put a pot of coffee on over there," she gestured to the side of the room, "you want any?"

"Yes please," Maria welcomed the idea of caffeine.

"Alright," her smile grew on her face as she let go of her hands to turn and walk away.

"Wait," Maria quickly lunged to grab a hand back; pulling her into her arms to kiss her softly. She instantly tasted the morning on her tongue; realising that Hope must have come straight down to find her the moment that she'd woken up and noticed that she was alone. "Okay, now you can go," Maria pushed her away from her, where Hope only smiled before wandering off to brew some coffee.

They ended up working on the panel up until Maria had to get ready to receive her parole officer.

Before Maria was released from court the day before, one of the officers of the court had put a small tracking anklet on her, telling her that someone would show up at her location the following morning at eight o'clock.

Maria had dressed in the same clothes that she'd worn in court, before she went out to greet her parole officer at the building's entrance.

A short, stout, black woman with beautiful short curly hair came walking up to Maria who was standing at the front of the doors. "Hello, I'm Officer Washington, but please, baby, just call me Za'Niyah," the woman greeted her with a giant smile, which threw Maria for a loop; not expecting such a friendly officer. "And, I presume by your weathered looking eyes, you're Commander Hill."

"Um. Yes," she shook her head, still taken aback by her.

"So this is that crazy shrink and pop up building that was all over the news not that long ago, yeah?"

"Ah, yes. It belongs to Dr. Pym."

"Very nice," she stretched her head back to view the building before looking back to her, "now are you going to show me inside?" She asked in delight, like she was excited to see it for her own curiosity alone.

"Yes, of course. This way," Maria led her into the building. "Don't be fooled by this first floor, it looks like this for security measures."

"Is this where you'll be staying for the duration of your parole?" Za'Niyah asked as they loaded into the elevator.

"I… ah, think so," Maria said, assuming that Hope wasn't wanting to kick her out.

"Are you planning on relocating this building at any point during the week?"

"I don't know," Maria shook her head before the doors opened to Hope's apartment, where Hope had stayed away in the lab to allow Maria to take care of her business. "But I'll be sure not to cross state lines if we do."

Za'Niyah laughed out, "oh baby girl, as long as you stay in the country, all is good. I'll just get another officer to check in on you at some point during the week, if you end up traveling far."

"Wait," they both stepped out into the room, "Are you serious?"

"Look," Za'Niyah turned to face her, "I don't know what you did to end up in the Raft, but my superiors told me you never should have been in there in the first place, and your parole is just a formality so the mortal powers that be, have it written on some record in some international file, to make all the organisations involved look accountable." She then pointed to Maria's ankle, "All you gotta do is wear that tracking device for a week, and answer your phone when we call, probably pee in at least one cup, then you're officially free of the system."

"Wow, okay," Maria nodded in shock.

"Which reminds me, I'm going to need your phone number."

Maria pulled her new mobile out of her pocket, quickly navigating to her phone's details in order to give her the number, not knowing it herself.

"Kay, and here is my number," the woman passed her a business card. "Call if you are planning on relocating."

"Understood," she took the offered item.

The woman then turned to pay more attention to the place, where she began walking around to inspect it, "Sweet Jesus, this really is a nice place," she said to herself as she stopped in front of the fireplace. "Wish I could just pop up an apartment like this in the middle of Brooklyn for myself. Put it on top of some building like an extra floor and then shrink it when I'm not home."

"Yeah, tell me about it. They're definitely cheating the system with this thing," Maria smiled at her, finding the woman quite endearing.

She nodded before looking down to her clipboard in her hand; slowly walking back to her. "Alright, I still gotta fill out this form here, a form that makes no sense to fill out for a week's parole, but here we go." She grabbed a pen, clicking it, before putting it to paper. "Do you currently have employment?"

"Yes."

"Who is your employer?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D."

Za'Niyah looked to her, "Ooo, damn girl, I knew you were gonna say some spy shit like that," she shook her head before looking down at her sheet. "fulltime?"

"More like double time all the time."

"I feel you there. We all working too much in this economy," she muttered while writing. "okay, I was not given any information on you other than your name, so I gotta ask. Any history with substance abuse?"

"No."

Za'Niyah nodded as she wrote. She then looked up to her, "for the duration of your parole you will not be permitted to drink alcohol or take any recreational drugs."

"Understood."

"Also, no firearms."

Maria timidly nodded, hating to be without a sidearm, "okay," she agreed.

"Good," she sighed with delight, "well this concludes my visit."

"That's it?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

Maria studied her for a moment before asking, "Are you always this pleasant on your visits?"

The woman began to laugh, "hell no, sometimes I'm scared I'm gonna snap and bust a cap in some parolee's ass." She shook her head, "but like I said, this here isn't a normal situation."

Maria smiled as she said, "I'll take you down and walk you to your car."

"Thank you," she looked at Maria in shock. "can't say I've ever had someone say that to me on a visit. They're more likely to slam the door behind me."

"Well the doors on this building don't slam. They all have those controlled closer things installed on them." Za'Niyah chuckled at her before they made their way out of the building together.

When Maria escorted Za'Niyah back to her vehicle she noticed a black Corvette Stingray off aways in the distance, seemingly waiting for her. Maria knew the car instantly as it drove up to her just as Za'Niyah pulled away to leave.

After the engine was cut, the door opened and out walked Natasha, who gave her a once over, "well you look a little better than yesterday."

Maria crossed her arms, "and what is that supposed to mean?"

"Like you didn't spend the night in prison." Natasha smirked before offering, "Want a change of clothes?" Before allowing Maria time to answer, she reached into her car, across to the passengers seat, and pulled out a black bag. "I found one of your emergency duffles in the back of Steve's Jeep."

Maria smiled, so happy to see her bag. "Technically that's my Jeep. I claimed it well before he was even thawed out of the ice. I just let him use it." Maria took the bag from her, throwing it over her shoulder.

"I also managed to grab this," Natasha opened her hand to reveal Maria's SUV that Hope had shrunk down. "Thought there might be another one of your bags in here."

Maria took the mentioned item from her in awe, "how did you get this?"

"Well, just before the Tower was about to get hit, I happened to be in Controls, and --I don't know-- I knew I didn't have time to grab all that much, and when I saw the car just sitting there on your desk, I took it."

Maria was so touched by her actions; knowing that Natasha was thinking about her and her things as their base was about to explode. She then turned the miniaturised vehicle over in her hand, studying it, "I didn't know you knew this was my actual Escalade just shrunken down." She then looked up, "but I guess I shouldn't be surprised you figured it out," she smiled.

Natasha held her gaze before asking, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Maria sighed before shaking her head, "not really."

Natasha nodded, "okay. But I'm here if you change your mind."

"Yeah, I know," Maria held her gaze.

"Well, I guess I should head out. Lots to do."

"It must be pretty bad," Maria thought on the clusterfuck situation that S.H.I.E.L.D. must have been in.

Natasha shrugged, "we're getting there. I'd say we've somewhat got our feet underneath ourselves now." Maria nodded, still feeling guilty for everything.

Natasha then moved to her where the two women simultaneously lifted their arms to hug each other. Maria squeezed her tightly as she thanked her through her embrace; loving her so much in that moment for always looking out for her. Natasha then pulled away, but not before kissing her on the cheek. "See you soon."

Maria nodded, "Yeah." before Natasha gave her one last smirk. She then got into her car and drove off.

Maria then went to go find Hope in the lab, where she couldn't help but grin at the sight in front of her. Hope was atop of an empty work table, feet up, knees bent, laid out on her back.

"What are you doing?" Maria laughed as she approached her, dropped her bag on the floor before she climbed on top of the table too; sitting cross-legged by Hope's feet, facing her.

Hope sat up with a smile, "I was tired and wanted to lie down." She then positioned her feet behind Maria as she scooted her butt closer to her as Maria pulled her onto her lap. "How did it go?" She said while resting her arms across Maria's shoulders.

"She was surprisingly very nice. She basically told me I can't drink and I can't shoot," she shrugged, "that's about it. I don't even have to stay in the state for the duration of my parole."

"Wait, really?" Hope asked with a glimmer in her eyes. Maria nodded which made Hope smile. "Want to get out of here then? We could go to San Francisco, have a day at the beach, pretend we're normal people for a week."

"The beach? God, I can't even remember the last time I was on a beach that wasn't related to an op."

"See, you need this. You lose your sense of personhood if you don't feel the sand between your toes every once in awhile."

Maria chuckled at her, lost in her smile. "My personhood, eh? Well I can't lose that now, can I?"

"Is that a yes to San Francisco then?" Maria happily nodded. "Good," Hope grinned before leaning in to kiss her, as Maria smiled into her lips.

Maria then pulled away as she took her SUV out of her pocket, presenting it to Hope, "But first, do you think you could grow this back to size for me?"

"Oh my god!" Hope laughed as she took the item from her.

"I know you said you wouldn't, because you wanted to teach me a lesson for spying on you. But I have some belongings in there that I wouldn't mind getting at."

"Did you have this as one of your personal effects that you got back after prison?" She asked in confused intrigue.

"No, Tasha dropped it off just now, along with that bag of some of my stuff," she gestured to the ground where it lay. "Now I won't have to steal your clothes and use your deodorant anymore."

"Oh, so you have a problem with my stuff now?" She asked in fake anger. "And you think I'm just going to reward you for bad behaviour and give you access to your candies in here," she wiggled the vehicle at her.

"Yes," Maria laughed before she pulled Hope's mouth to hers. Their kiss soon grew heated as Maria's hand slipped inside the back of Hope's pants; grabbing at her butt cheek. "And I love your stuff," Maria mumbled playfully into Hope's lips as she gave her ass a squeeze.

"Yeah? Well, you're going to have to prove it to me later," Hope replied back teasingly before capturing her lips once again, as Maria felt a lightness come over her; happy to be getting away from the city that was home to the Avengers Tower ground zero, and an amputated Lady Liberty. Maybe if she couldn't deal with her guilt, she could at least try and distance herself from it for a little while with Hope in her hometown, under the sun.


	25. Twenty-Fifth

That same day, Maria, Hope, Scott, and Janet made their way across the country, setting the lab back on that same location by the ocean that had become its regular spot over that past few months. The flight back was rather quick. They took Tony's private plane; a plane that apparently Pepper had told Maria that she could use whenever it wasn't occupied by herself or Tony. Though, by the sounds of it, Maria didn't actually use it that often. However, it did intrigue Hope just to see how much access and trust people seemed to allot Maria.

It was late afternoon when Hope and Maria had managed to get themselves to the beach. The sky was overcast with the sun sporadically peeking out from the clouds. Both women had their hair tied back to keep the wind from blowing it into their faces.

Hope had a pair of jean shorts on with a light green t-shirt tucked in at the front, and a swimsuit concealed underneath. And Maria, who had borrowed more of Hope's clothing despite her saying that she wouldn't need to, wore a pair of lightweight cargo style pants with a drawstring at the top and elastics at the bottom of the pant legs that stopped midway down her calves. Her outfit was completed with a thin white t-shirt which exposed the blue bikini top that she was wearing underneath that was yet another courtesy of Hope.

They were walking through the shallows of the water down the beach, a large bag hanging over Hope's shoulder as they both had their sandals in hand. Maria's footwear had been a pair of flip-flops that Hope had given her. They were lucky that they fit since Maria's feet were a size larger than Hope's, but those particular shoes were big on Hope, now to their advantage.

As they walked the beach, Hope couldn't help but get lost while watching all the surfers in the water; giving her the desire to hop on a board herself and join them.

"I take it by the longing in your eyes that you surf?"

"Huh?" Maria's voice pulled Hope's attention back to the shore; looking to the woman. "Oh, yeah," she answered; realising that she couldn't remember the last time she was out on the water, "I mean, I used to. I haven't gone in years." She remembered back to her youth, "I used to live in the water as a teen." Smiling, the memories of a different time came flooding back. "I met these surfers on the beach one day. They were two years older than me and just the coolest people," she shook her head. "We were inseparable for like three years." To this day, Hope was still brokenhearted thinking on the day she'd essentially quit surfing; deciding that it was more important to focus on her academic career. Hope then fixated on the main culprit of her pleasant surfing past, "There was this one girl, Alonna," Hope added. "She was from Oahu," she remembered the girl so vividly. She had the most gorgeous hair, long and dark, and soulful espresso eyes. "She was like this beautiful, wise, ocean goddess. She taught me practically everything I know about surfing." Hope chuckled to herself, "she even showed me the old heʻe ʻana traditions, including how to call forth big swells from the sea, like the Hawaiian priests had done. We'd even make these shrines out of rocks on the beach together."

"You had a crush on her," Maria said in a knowing tone.

"Oh, big time," Hope shamelessly admitted. "I --of course-- didn't realise it at the time. But when she started dating one of our mutual guy friends, I was suddenly very angry and annoyed with him."

"I know that feeling." Maria admitted. "So, when did it finally dawn on you that you liked girls then?"

"College." Hope stopped, as she looked up the beach, towards the boardwalk. "How about we sit here," she pointed to a nice open section in the sand with barely any people around.

"Okay." Hope led them to the mentioned area; pulling out a large beach towel from her bag to place it down on the sand. "You know you're going to have to elaborate on your college story, right?" Maria eyed Hope as she sat down.

Hope smiled, watching Maria lower herself down next to her on the towel before starting. "She was my biophysics prof."

"Your prof?" Maria looked to her in shock. "Is that even allowed?"

"Not even slightly. It's a fireable offence if caught."

Maria said with a hint of pride, "You rebel."

"Not as much as she was. And she basically picked a new girl every semester. Even before I met her, I'd heard the rumours about her." Hope pointed out, "So she was the one truly playing with fire." Now in hindsight, it dawned on her, just how desperate she was for attention, specifically female attention, back then. "So when I got to class that first day, I noticed her noticing me, and I kinda liked it," Hope shrugged.

"Of course she noticed you, you hot piece of ass." Maria smirked with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

"Oh my god!" Hope gawked out with a grin; way too pleased with Maria's teasing comment that insinuated that she found her attractive.

"So how old was she?" Maria asked, but Hope was now a lot more hesitant to respond; knowing the answer not to be exactly kosher. "Hope?" Maria pressed.

Hope started slowly, "She was older…." she cocked her head to the side, "than me."

Maria looked at her through slitted eyes, "older than you then, or older than you now?"

"Yes," Hope voice reached a new octave.

"So she was in her --what-- forties?" Maria flashed a grin as she asked.

"At least."

"And you were how old?" Maria kept prodding, clear amusement on her face.

"Like, twenty-two," Hope bit her lip sheepishly.

"Wow." It was clear that Maria was trying to conceal a grin.

"I know, okay!" Hope blurted; throwing her hands up while looking to the grey sky.

"And here I was worried you'd dump me for a younger model when I got old, but it seems I haven't even reached your dating demographic yet."

Hope smiled as she dropped her head to look at her. "Now that you mention it, you are the only person I've ever dated who's been younger than me."

"I turned you into a cradle robber."

"Yes," Hope reached over to squish Maria's cheeks, "and this is why you're my baby," she referenced the pet name that she'd often called her. A pet name that she'd never used before, yet, it felt so appropriate with Maria. Like, even though she was this intimidating commander, she was also soft and damaged inside, and Hope had this need to nurture her because of it.

Hope dropped her hands away from her face as Maria said cheekily, "You have so much to teach me with your whole two more years life experience than I have."

"Now I suddenly feel all this responsibility on my shoulders." Hope said teasingly, "I mean, I've already had to teach you how to put a pot to simmer. What else am I gonna have to walk your young mind through?" Hope said, with a clear understanding of how ridiculous her words were. Maria had probably lived more of a life than someone thrice her age. And the notion that it was a burden to teach her anything, was also asinine. Maria had such a steep learning curve that Hope had genuinely wondered if she was a legitimate genius.

"Surfing," Maria said, "I want you to show me your surfing skills."

"Right now?"

"Right now," Maria firmly noded.

"We don't have boards."

"Not we, just you. I'm not crashing my ass into the waves." Maria reached for Hope's ponytail, pulling her hair over her shoulder as she then played with it; twisting its end around her fingers. "But I absolutely want to see you out there," she practically purred.

"Normally, I wouldn't take something like that as an excuse, but I'll let it slide because of your cracked ribs." Maria smirked, clearly glad to be off the hook. Hope then looked over the beach, "I still don't have a board though," instantly accepting Maria's request; genuinely excited to go out surfing.

"There was a surf rent back there," Maria pointed off to where they'd just come from, "or…," she then noticed a middle-aged man coming out of the water, surfboard in hand, as she then called out to him, "hey, excuse me!"

"Wait. What are you doing?" Hope gawked at Maria.

"Me?" The surfer stopped in front of them.

"Maria, no," Hope growled in her ear, already embarrassed.

Maria ignored Hope as she smiled up at the man, "yeah, would you be willing to let us use your surfboard? It'd only be for a short surf."

"Seriously?" Hope huffed at her audacity; knowing that most surfers hated sharing their boards, especially with complete strangers.

"Oh, totally. Go aggro, my Betties. There are some bombs showing up right now. Primo time for tube riding," the man responded with the most laidback demeanor, which put Hope at ease. The surfer then looked back and forth between them before asking, "you only want one board, not two? 'Cause we got lots," He pointed to a group of people, with multiple boards, just up the beach a little ways.

"Oh, it'd just be for me," Hope took over the conversation, still a little annoyed with Maria as she decided to get back at her. "She's clucked anyway," Hope gestured to the other woman with her head.

"Ah, too bad, it's firing out there." Hope couldn't help but smile; excited to get out on the waves that were breaking nicely. "I could still give your friend a board, just in case. And if she doesn't attempt a drop, she gets to at least stand on the beach with it like a hodad."

"Thanks, but you don't have to bother." Hope turned to find a confused expression on Maria's face, which only made Hope want to pick on her even more. "Besides, look at her, she's much too pasty to pass as a hodad, even with a board in hand." Hope focused back on the man, "She's clearly a Benny through and through."

"Ouch," the man laughed, "gnarly burn, brah."

Hope looked back to find a scowl on Maria's face as she crossed her arms. "Well I guess my pasty skin makes me more susceptible to them, even the ones that I don't understand," she glared at Hope.

"Like a sunburn!" The man exclaimed with glee. "You two are choka," he praises them for, apparently, being cool in his eyes. "Anyways" the man put this board down in the sand in front of them, "when you're out there, just keep an eye out. Men in grey suits have been sighted this morning in the area."

"Out by the rocks?" Hope assumed; knowing sharks favoured that location.

"You know it," he nodded.

"Never liked paying the reef tax out there anyway."

"I feel ya on that one." he put out his leg, "paid a heavy tax there last year," he pointed at a sizable scar on his thigh.

"That's gnarly, dude," Hope cringed while imagining just how sharp that rock must have been that he hit.

"Yeah, but sometimes ya just wanna ride those bommies." Hope understood the feeling, on calmer days, those were often the only waves big enough to make an effort to catch.

"Thanks again for your generosity. And sorry for being a beach leach. I usuallydohave my own board."

"Nah, bruh, don't believe in those anyways. Why rent when you're without." He gestured out to all the boards sprinkled about on the beach. "There's plenty of sticks right here, noses down, in the sand."

"And they're all probably better than those pop-out rentals with dings and caved in decks," Hope referred to all the machine made surfboards she'd seen over the years, from the rent shops, that nearly always had damage to them.

"Totally." The man ran his hand through his wet hair as he continued, "Well, I'll be right up there for when you're done shootin' the curls," he gestured to his spot with his friends. "Hang loose, my friend."

"Akaw," Hope smiled in excitement, when she naturally gave him the shaka sign in thanks, with her thumb and pinky finger extended out of a fist. He smiled; giving the hand gesture back at her before he walked away.

"I can't believe you bummed a board," Hope whipped her head to the side as she gawked at Maria. But the other woman didn't react to her comment, as she merely stared at her with a look of intrigue, while visibly biting down a grin. "What?" Hope asked, a little scared by whatever was on Maria's mind.

"I know you just told me you were big into surfing, but --boy-- was I not ready for you, Hope Van Dyne, granddaughter of Vernon 'TheTech Tycoon' Van Dyne, heiress of Silicon Valley, debutante."

"I was not a debutante, my mother was."

"Whatever," she shook her head, quickly correcting her verbiage, "Socialite, uptown girl, Harvard alumni--"

Hope crossed her arms over her chest as she interrupted her, "are you quite done yet?"

"Just about," Maria quickly answered before carrying on, "former chairman of Pym Tech, Forbes April 2011 covergirl." She gestured to her with her hands, "You!"

"Yes, me."

"Youjust talked surfer dude. Like you literally said the word 'gnarly'," Maria gasped in complete shock, "I heard it with my own two ears," she pointed to the sides of her head.

Hope couldn't help but chuckle at her and her exaggerated reaction towards the situation, as she shrugged, "What can I say, when I'm on the beach, I'm just a Betty."

Maria narrowed her eyes as she timidly asked, "Which is a surfer girl?"

"Right."

"Well," Maria stood up, coaxing Hope to her feet as well, "I want to see your Betty ass off the beach and on the waves." Maria took a hold of Hope's shirt, pulling it over her head and tossing it to the ground, before going to unbutton her jean shorts for her. "By the way, did you call me a chicken for not wanting to surf?"

"Yeah," Hope giggled where she received a glare from Maria.

"And what's a hodad?" Maria stepped back, giving Hope room to pull off her own bottoms.

"Basically a poser."

"Wow, you surfers are rude." Maria then, very visibly, raked her eyes over Hope's body, which was now only in a black bikini. "But I'll take it if this is the view I get while you're spouting your trash talk," Maria bit her lip as she stepped back to her, instantly wrapping her arms around her waist.

"To be fair," Hope mirrored her actions, sliding her arms around her too, "I didn't call you a hodad, I called you a Benny."

"Which is?" Maria eyed her; evidently suspecting something bad.

"A non-local." Hope shrugged innocently, "See, nothing insulting about that."

"You basically called me an out-of-towner who's too pale to pass for even a fake surfer, in front of your fellow surfer friend."

"He wouldn't have been my friend if you hadn't have called him over here in the first place."

Maria chuckled out in fake anger, "Oh, so now it's my fault that you're mean?" Hope grinned with a nod before Maria huffed, "You know what?" Maria bent down, breaking contact with her as she picked up the board, "you can just leave. Go be rude to the ocean. It's her turn to hear your insults," she thrust the board into Hope's hands.

Hope dropped her head to the side, totally smitten with Maria and her playful mood, where she soon saw the corners of Maria's mouth started to curl up; muting her scowl.

"Get out of here," Maria barked with a contradictory grin that had fully slipped out, as she was clearly trying to stay mad, but failing miserably at it, which made Hope laugh. She then turned to run into the water, but not before Maria took the opportunity to slap her ass on her departure.

Hope didn't even turn back to gawk at Maria's action, for that she was far too excited to get up on a surfboard again. As well as wanting to show off in front of Maria.

Before Hope got into the water, she attached the leash to her ankle and slid the elastics out of her hair to put around her wrist; always liking her hair down when she surfed. She then stepped in and paddled out.

The waves were indeed perfect. It felt like not a single day had passed since the last time she was out on the ocean. She easily caught a number of waves, carving everyone of them to completion.

Eventually she forced herself back to shore, knowing that she was on a borrowed board, which meant, borrowed time. She was quick to return the surfboard to its owner, thanking him again, before heading back to Maria, who was still sitting on the large beach towel.

"Did you have the time of your life?" Maria smiled up at her, passing her the other towel that was inside their beach bag.

"Yeah. Pretty much," Hope sighed with satisfaction, before she started to dry herself off.

"Of course you did, you big adrenaline junky."

"Adrenaline junky?" Hope looked to her in surprise, "Me? Hardly."

"Yeah, says the woman who flew through a matrix of sliding hunks of metal --designed to stop bullets-- in a shrunken form, all for a training exercise."

Hope recognised the danger of being fully impacted by one of the shields in motion, when she was such a small size. It would probably be akin to getting hit by a truck while standing out on the highway, but Hope couldn't help but realise that Maria was just as bad as her when it came to putting herself in harm's way. "You flew into a missile with a helicopter!" She retorted.

"Yeah, to save the tower, not because I thought it'd be fun to see if I could do it or not," Maria glared at her with amusement. "I put my life on the line because I have to, and often begrudgingly so," she scrunched her face, where Hope couldn't help but smile; knowing the look of annoyance that Maria often wore at work. "But you do it with an exhilarated smile on your face; joyously welcoming the experience."

Hope thought over her words, finding it odd that she'd never realised it before. She absolutely was an adrenaline junky. She'd always released her nerves by doing things like surfing, fencing, sparing, taking high speed flights in her suit through obstacles like the lab's duct system, or sometimes even driving her car a little too fast up in the hills along the winding roads. All things that most people didn't seem to do. Or at least, not out of some need to feel alive. Whereas, through Hope's observations of Maria, she noticed that the woman never seemed enthusiastic about the dangerous tasks that she often participated in. She simply treated the situations like she had a moral obligation to protect, and nothing more. No fear, no joy, just duty. Which only cemented the idea more, in Hope's mind: that Maria was the most honourable person she'd ever known. Constantly putting her neck out for others, without even getting so much as a rush while doing it.

Hope then lowered herself onto the towel before she crawled over to her, as Maria grabbed both sides of her towel, pulling her in-between her bent legs. "Well, I can't help it if you didn't get the memo that danger is actually fun."

Maria signed, tilting her head back as she muttered, "God, you and Sharon both." She then looked back to Hope, "You two should start a club. Call it theGive Maria Anxiety Society."

"That does have a nice ring to it," Hope smiled as she wrapped her arms around Maria's body, shivering. "I'm cold."

"I thought you were rather hot out there," Maria looked to her coyly as she rubbed her hands over her back; trying to warm her up. "At least you look damn good while chasing after your high."

"Yeah?" Hope asked teasingly, as she leaned in closer to her, "how good?" She practically whispered into Maria's lips.

Maria answered her by closing the minute gap between them; capturing her lips. "You taste like the ocean," she pulled away from her mouth only to swirl her tongue around the inside of Hope's lips. "You really are my salty bitch."

Hope giggled as she pressed her lips back to Maria's; but this time Maria pushed her tongue all the way inside of her mouth where Hope enthusiastically greeted it with her own.

They remained there for quite a while where Maria proceeded to warm Hope up with her body while keeping her preoccupied with her mouth pressed up against hers.

Hope finally pulled her head away from Maria and asked, "Wanna go to the boardwalk and get ice cream?"

"Absolutely," Maria's eyes lit up, "especially if they have chocolate chip cookie dough."

"I'm sure they do." Hope very reluctantly moved away from Maria, where she proceeded to pull her clothes back on and shove her damp towel inside the bag.

Hope looked to her, "shall we go?" Maria studied her, an unsatisfied expression on her face. She then wordlessly reached for the bag, digging through it to pull out a brush. "Is it that bad?" Hope asked.

"I see a knot in the back," Maria moved behind her before she started working on the mentioned area with the brush.

It didn't take long for her to get the tangle out, where she continued to brush out the rest of her hair. Hope closed her eyes as she felt a tingle travel up her neck. She felt so taken care of through the small action and Maria was so gentle while doing it too.

Maria then brushed all of Hope's hair over one shoulder before she dipped her head down to softly kiss the exposed side of her neck. Her lips sent a jolt of warmth through her body, making Hope lightly gasp. "Now you're perfect, my love," Maria innocently hummed into her skin, yet her term of endearment had melted Hope into a puddle of nothingness.

Maria then placed the brush back inside the bag just before she stood up, to Hope's dismay, as all she wanted to do was grab Maria back to her and keep her close for a little while longer.

Hope then, too, got to her feet as she scooped up the towel that they were just sitting on; folding it and putting it into the bag before throwing it over her shoulder. They both grabbed their sandals and each other's hands as they made their way to the ice cream parlor.

Once they'd gotten their frozen treats, they decided to stroll up the boardwalk, perusing the shops as they went, though many were starting to close down because it was beginning to sprinkle with rain clouds that looked ready to downpour at any moment. Hope had finished her ice cream faster than Maria had since she'd never liked eating the cone itself; throwing it away into the garbage.

Maria was still chomping at her cone when she gawked, "Oh my god," making her way to a clothing rack. With her free hand, she picked up a small black t-shirt, clearly intended for a child, that had the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on it with the text'Agent In Training'across it. "Cassie needs this."

Hope grinned at her before she soon noticed a shirt next to it, that had the Avengers 'A' on it with the text 'Avenger In Training'. Picking it up to show Maria, she asked, "or does she actually need this one?"

"And which Avenger is she going to be?" She asked skeptically, like she didn't believe Hope had thought it through.

"The Wasp, of course," Hope insisted, then shrugging as she added, "Well, after I retire, that is."

Maria seemed pleased to accept Hope's assessment of Cassie's future as she said, "Well I guess she'll just have to be both an agent and an Avenger, like Tasha, Clint, and Steve."

Hope chuckled as she took the shirt out of Maria's hand where she paid for the both of them; placing them in her bag.

On the topic of the young girl, Hope started, "So, I was thinking --and only if you're up for it-- we invite Cassie over at some point this week." The two started walking further down the boardwalk as she continued. "We could do a movie, possibly let her sleep over," Hope suggested, already knowing that her parents would approve it.

Maria's face lit up, "We could watch Star Wars."

"Sure," Hope chuckled, glad that she seemed excited by it. "And then you two can finally do your mission debriefing."

"Yeah," Maria threw the last piece of her cone into her mouth, quickly swallowing it, "I'll show her how to write a mission report. Then hopefully she can teach, like the other half of my agents, who still don't seem to understand how to fill them out properly," she grumbled in annoyance.

Hope studied her, thinking on just how good she was with children, making her wonder what her stance was on them. "Did you ever…," Hope asked timidly, "I mean, do you ever see yourself wanting to have kids of your own?"

Maria shrugged casually, "can't say that I've ever had the desire to have them." She then moved to a nearby garbage bin, tossing in her serviette that came wrapped around her cone. "Didn't think it was in my cards, regardless of my feelings, anyway." She then visibly shuddered, "Also, just the thought of pregnancy makes my skin crawl. That's like a host/parasite adjacent arrangement that I'm really not wanting to ever experience."

Maria's words had triggered painful memories within Hope; where she couldn't help but look down at her feet, as the rain started coming down heavier. "Wait," Maria voice came softly this time, like she'd noticed Hope's reaction, "are you asking me this because you want kids?"

Hope remembered back to the last time she was asked that, before saying, "No." An answer that came so differently than before.

Maria stepped in front of Hope, stopping her in her tracks. "Please don't say that if it's not true," she bore her gaze into her's, while they were starting to get drenched from the rain. "If you want kids, then I need you to tell me. I want you to have everything in life you desire," she said with such clear conviction.

Hope shook her head, "It's not that, It's just…" she sighed, "I was pregnant once before."

Maria looked to her with surprise, yet her gaze was soft. She then broke eye contact with her, quickly scanning the area before she grabbed her by the hand. "Come on," she dragged her back onto the beach where they found shelter from the rain under a nearby lifeguard tower, where it was tall enough for them to easily stand beneath it.

Maria didn't say a word, she simply allowed Hope the time to begin whenever she'd felt comfortable. Hope put the bag down, before she leaned back against a support pillar; crossing her arms as she stared out past Maria towards the water and all the people running across the beach to get out of the rain. "I was in a pretty serious relationship with one of the engineers from Pym Tech," Hope thought back to the man whom she'd thought she would spend the rest of her life with at the time. "And, ah, three years in, we decided to try for a baby." The memory of all her heavy bleeding, along with a panicked visit to her doctor, ran through her mind. "It was a late misscariage, I was just over five months pregnant when we lost her." Hope looked down to the sand, "We named her Janet after my mom." She thought of her tiny girl, wrapped in the yellow baby blanket with her name stitched across it, that was given to her by her best friend at the time. "She would have been turning twelve this upcoming November," she said, tears now in her eyes when she thought about all the times she'd seen little girl's around that age, out and about; making her wonder if her late daughter would have been anything like them.

"Hope," Maria said so gently as she lovingly grasped Hope's cold upper arms.

"It's okay," Hope shook her head, getting a hold of herself, "I'm okay." She looked into Maria's comforting eyes, "I mean, I wasn't then. The loss ended my relationship with her father, but that's in the past now," Hope tried to push on past her old trauma, realising that this was the first time she'd brought it up in years. Even her own parents didn't know about it.

"Is that what you still want though? A family?"

"I've got a family," Hope unwrapped her arms from around her body to place her hands on Maria's arms.

"Yes," Maria shook her head, "but I mean--"

"Maria," Hope cut her off before she had time to properly start, "I'm in a different place now. I want different things. I don't want to be a mother anymore, I want to be The Wasp."

"You could be both."

"I don't want to be. I'm not even sure I wanted to be a mother then, I was just following the societal narrative. Husband, house, kids, nine to five at the office."

"Are you sure?" Maria came again, obviously really needing Hope to be definitive, beyond a doubt.

"I'm absolutely positive," Hope said with conviction . "I love my life with you and the Avengers," she stepped closer to Maria as she slid her arms around her back, with Maria quickly mirroring her actions, "So much so that I've been thinking I might want to do the whole Avengers/S.H.I.E.L.D. thing full time," she was suddenly filled with nerves as she added, "if you guys will have me, that is."

Maria smiled, "Steve would be thrilled. He just gushes about you in all his training reports."

Hope was ecstatic to hear that, but she was a lot more concerned about Maria's thoughts, "And what about you?"

"Part of me selfishly wishes you were a little more keen to do that nine to five office job. It would be a lot safer so I wouldn't have to worry so much about you," she unwrapped her arm from around Hope's body, only to push some of her long wet hair behind her ear. "But I can't say I'm not excited by the thought of seeing you more if you were permanent," she gave her a playful look. "And it would also make my job a lot easier if you made a regular habit of slaying some more universal threats too." Hope smirked at her words of approval as Maria moved to place her hand on the side of Hope's head; pushing her cheek to her temple to snuggled it. "I'm sorry about your daughter," Maria then lovingly kissed her scalp, "and about all the asshole things I said about pregnancy," she apologised while she rested her face against Hope's head.

"They weren't asshole things. They were your personal feelings," Hope squeezed her a little tighter. "And besides, I have someactualasshole things to say about pregnancy," she said, still tormented by her experience. Then it quickly dawned on her that she wasn't alone in that. "But, then again, I guess you do too --you know-- with your birth mother and all."

"Yeah," Maria said, as if she'd just realised their shared connection of being screwed over by the same thing. "You know what? Fuck pregnancy!"

Maria's reaction made Hope laugh, releasing her tension brought on by her painful memories. "Yeah, fuck pregnancy. It's clearly not our thing so we should stay far away from it."

Maria pulled her head away to look at her, "and besides, we have Cassie"

"Yeah."

"To kidnap if we ever change our minds about the whole child rearing thing."

"Exactly!" Hope laughed out, knowing that Cassie would go anywhere with Maria without hesitation. Hope then moved her hands to gently cup Maria's face as she smiled, "I love you."

"Not as much as I love you."

"Oh, so it's a competition now?"

"Yes," Maria beamed, "and I'm winning."

"Only in your dreams."

"Come on," Maria pulled away, only to grab Hope's hand.

"What are you doing?" Hope giggled.

"Leave the bag and your shoes," Maria instructed, where Hope complied.

Maria then towed her away from the shelter of the tower and into the rain, that was now a heavy downpour. She then pulled her into her arms as she began leading her into a dance.

Hope still couldn't get over Maria and her soft romantic side. She really had this beautiful soul that didn't allow the fact that it was tortured to stop it from shining brightly. Brightly enough to even warm Hope's pained heart.

They only danced for a short while before Hope had the need to wrap her arms around Maria's neck; pushing her mouth to hers. The water dripped down their faces as their lips slid over each others so smoothly in their wet kiss. It was as if the rain itself had trickled down their combined bodies and cocooned them together.

Eventually Hope broke the kiss to drop her forehead to Maria's. "Wanna go home?"

Maria nodded with a smile, where they then ran back to get their stuff and head out to the vehicle.

Back at the apartment they went straight to the bedroom when Hope said, "I'm going to throw all our wet stuff in the laundry before I take a shower and wash this saltwater out of my hair." But all Hope could manage to do was pull off her soaked t-shirt before Maria took her by the shoulders, pushing her down onto the bed. "Maria!" Hope yelled out, "we're wet!"

She then giggled as Maria crawled on top of her. "The bedding will dry," she muttered before pushing her mouth to Hope's, where Hope did absolutely nothing to fend her off. It had been so long since they'd been intimate like that, and she wasn't about to stop it from happening. She missed Maria's body.

Maria began to kiss her way down her body as Hope rolled her head back in excitement, but something soon shifted as Maria had stopped at her stomach. The woman had pressed a lingering kiss there, where her hands gently rubbed over the area.

Hope tilted her head down to see Maria; her face looking so sad at she lovingly stared at her stomach.

"Maria?"

Her gaze remained downward as she softly said, "you can't just tell me there was a part of you that was lost to the world, and expect me to simply accept it." she kissed her stomach again as Hope could see visible tears in her eyes. Maria then muttered into her skin, "she would have been so smart and beautiful just like you."

Suddenly Hope felt overwhelmed by the emotions that Maria had brought up in her. This woman, who had no biological ties to her stillborn child, was mourning her. Maria saw her late daughter as an extension of Hope, and that was enough to evoke this distraught reaction from within her. Maria acted as though she felt the loss as if it were her own child. Which made Hope sit up; yanking Maria to her as she wrapped her arm around her head, securing her neck in the crook of her elbow. She pulled Maria tightly to her as she captured her lips in a desperate, loving kiss as she too started to tear up.

Hope didn't know how it was possible, but somehow her love for Maria had grown so much more in that little moment. She'd validated Hope's trauma and depression all those years ago, by simply showing pain for the loss. Like, even though Maria wasn't present at the time, it still didn't spare her from the event.

Hope held her so dearly as she eventually turned Maria over so that she was the one on top; reversing their position. She had to take control and show Maria just how much she loved her. She started moving her mouth down to Maria's neck, finding her favourite spot right underneath her perfect jawline, before she began to suckle it.

"Hope," Maria groaned, as she tilted her neck to give her better access as she grabbed at Hope's head, pushing it harder into her body.

Hope smiled as she felt her own tears running down her face, before she eased Maria's shirt off, careful of her injured ribs. She then returned her mouth to her skin and moved down her body; properly loving every inch of it as she continued to undress her as she went.

They stayed in that bed for hours, taking turns showing their love and affection for one another until they eventually fell asleep in each other's arms.


	26. Twenty-Sixth

Hope was sitting on the sofa with her hair down in soft waves, which Maria had learned was its natural state when Hope didn't blow dry it straight. The woman was in an oversized white sweater and had earbuds in as she was knitting something with blue yarn. "What?" Hope muttered to herself as her face scrunched in confusion right before she tossed her knitting to the side. She then picked up her phone, tapping it as if she was pausing something, as her other hand moved to pick up a journal. Hope dropped her mobile on the cushion before grabbing up a pair of black rimmed reading glasses from off the ottoman in front of her; putting them on to then shove her nose into the book. She started biting at her nail as she seemed instantly lost in the text that she was reading.

Maria, who was leaning up against the wall ever since she'd left the bedroom after her shower, had been studying her. Suddenly Maria's cheeks began to hurt as she realised that she'd been smiling the entire time that she was looking at her. Hope was just so gorgeously adorable when she was lost in concentration; not even noticing that she was being watched. It also didn't help that her thick rimmed glasses were sending Maria over the edge; she'd never seen Hope in spectacles and it was arousing her sexy scientist fantasies.

Hope had been a perfect respite for Maria for the past five days. She was extremely effective in allowing Maria to disassociate from her actions with A.I.M. Though she knew that her utopian vacation wouldn't last. Soon she'd have to report back to S.H.I.E.L.D. and everything would come crashing back down on her. But for now, she'd take every opportunity she had in her temporary paradise and spend it with her angelic love.

"What are you doing?" Maria's smile never faltered as she sauntered over to Hope.

Hope abruptly peeked up from her notebook, like she'd been startled, only to then smile back at Maria. "My mom made notes on the particle activity she observed in the quantum realm," she pulled her earbuds out, tossing them to the side, "and I swear there's a pattern here," she said, shaking the book, "particularly looking at entangled particles and their spin. Like not only how they behave opposite of each other, but also when and where they disappear and reappear to." Maria reached her, lowering down as she straddled Hope's lap where the other woman moved all her things to accommodate her presence. "So," Hope continued, "I'm listening to a math lecture to see how one would even approach an equation to make sense of all this." Maria nodded along, not understanding a thing she was saying, as she rested her arms on Hope's shoulders while Hope dropped the notebook to free up her hands to wrap them around Maria's body. "But right now the lecturer is talking about equations for supersolid phasing. Looking at calculations for measuring the energy of weak atomic bonds as they're being squeezed and condensed for their molecules to pass through them, which isn't what I need, like at all." Hope cocked her head to the side. "Yet it's still closer than the ten dimensional string theory calculation that he talked about in the last lecture I listened to."

"Yeah, totally followed all that," Maria nodded sarcastically. Hope then grinned at her, full well knowing that her words had flown over her head. "So are you about to make a scientific breakthrough here?"

"No. I'm more so doing this as a thought experiment." Hope then laughed as she shook her head, "trust me, I'm the last person to ever make a scientific breakthrough. I keep my head above water in the STEM fields, that's all. I'm not my dad."

Maria wasn't pleased in hearing her words. The woman, who technically didn't even finish so much as highschool, was obviously nowhere near an expert on the subject herself, though she knew that Hope's knowledge expanded way further than she'd given herself credit for. Keeping her head above water on something like quantum theory seemed much more apt to describe someone like Natasha, not Hope. Someone who literally had a masters degree in the scientific field.

"That's not what Bruce thinks," Maria made sure to communicate to her. "He told me you are a wealth of knowledge in quantum mechanics and he wishes he could tap directly into your brain to understand everything you know." She hoped that a scientist other than her genius dad, would give her a better perspective of her abilities.

Maria was pleased to see a smirk on her face like she were trying to pray away a blush. Hope then reached to push her glasses up, with the intention to reset then atop her head, where Maria was quick to push her hand away. "No," Maria barked, sliding her glasses back to rest them on the bridge of her nose. Her tone then shifted to a purr, "You're not allowed to ruin this whole sexy nerd look you've got going on here." Maria's then leaned in to nip at Hope's bottom lip, not able to hold back from her any longer.

Her teeth soon let go of their hold, but not before yanking at her lip. Maria then pushed her tongue inside of the other woman's mouth where Hope responded to the action by tightening her grip around Maria's waist as she pulled her in closer. Shortly, Maria's mouth was busy making its way down Hope's neck where she then cried out in annoyance, "Maria!" Her outburst came through heated breaths as she began to squirm under her touch, "Cassie's going to be here any minute now."

Maria dragged her bottom lip over Hope's throat before muttering into her skin, "You can't just wear glasses," she kissed under her jaw, "spew hot science babble at me," she then moved to her ear, pushing her hair out of the way as she whispering into it, "and expect anything else." She then took hold of her earlobe between her teeth and pulled at it.

"Maria!" Hope came again but this time louder than before as she screeched through a laugh.

"Fine," Maria released her bite, "but you'll be in a lot of trouble later," she teased through a mischievous smile before looking over to an object of interest, off to the side of them on the sofa. "Hey, it's your basket of knitting," Maria reached over to grab the mentioned item, tugging it closer. She instantly rummaged through Hope's handy work, putting on a blue toque, a green scarf with black speckles, and a pair of oversized mittens to match. "Okay," Maria put her hands up between them as to show off just how bundled even her fingers were, "Now I'm finally ready for all these cold California nights that you warned me about."

"Shut up!" Hope grinned while ripping the mittens off of Maria's hands.

"Hey," Maria gawked, "I need those!"

"You know what you need?" Hope gave her a look of warning right before she grabbed a hold of the green scarf, only to wrap it around Maria's head while she growled, "you need to stop talking."

"Yes, good," Maria said in a muffled voice, her mouth presently covered in a thick layer of wool, "now I'll survive the harsh southern windchill that's coming up from Mexico."

Hope dropped her head back to rest it on the top of the couch as she sighed, "you're impossible." Maria started to unwrap the scarf as Hope rolled her head to the side, looking at her knitwear. She dropped the back of her hand onto the pile as she thoughtfully concluded, "I should really donate these."

"Not all of them. I want this hat," Maria referred to the toque that she was wearing, liking how comfortable it felt on her head. She then tossed the green scarf around Hope's neck, instantly liking the colour on her as it made the green in her eyes pop. "And you'll need some of these in New York."

Hope's face lit up, where Maria assumed it was due to her mention of the East Coast. They'd talked quite a bit about it over the past few days; both excited by the notion of them being together there, if Hope were to join S.H.I.E.L.D. full-time as an agent. "What if I want that hat?" Hope moved to take it from Maria, but the Commander was too quick, and clamped her arms over her head to protect it from her grabbing hands.

"You can't have it, I already claimed it."

Hope ceased her attempts to take it from her as she yielded to her wishes with a smirk, "Fine. You can keep it." Maria smiled while removing her hands from her head just before Hope casually reached over, adjusting the hat that had nearly slid completely over her one eye.

After Hope straightened out her toque, Maria began fiddling with the scarf around Hope's neck, as she still couldn't quite believe that she'd made all of the items before them. Maria understood all of her high adrenaline hobbies like surfing and fighting. She accepted her love for reading, since she'd shown Maria that she viewed literature through an intellectual lens. She even got why she enjoyed being in the kitchen, since both cooking and baking were a science. But this particular past time was befuddling to her; she just couldn't understand it. "I still can't believe you knit. It seems so off brand for you," Maria shook her head in puzzlement.

"My mom taught me when I was little," Hope smiled warmly. "And yeah, I admittedly didn't love it at first," she cocked her head to the side. "But after she disappeared, I got back into it." Her eyes then drifted to the basket as she reached over and rubbed her fingers over the knitting needles that were attached to what she'd just been recently working on. "It reminded me of her when I did it." Hope then looked over to Maria with a heart-melting smile, "She'd always create such beautiful things. Not just knitting, but sewing too. She used to design all her evening dresses, ever since she was a teenager." Hope looked as if she were picturing them in her mind's eye as she continued, "They were so stunning, and she'd wear them to all these blacktie events and just stand out in them."

"She sounds talented," Maria said, not the least bit surprised to learn that Janet would be one to add beauty to the world, not only through her love and compassion, but through tangible things as well.

"Yeah, she makes gorgeous ball gowns, and I make," Hope grabbed and then slid on the same mitts that Maria had on shortly beforehand, "oversized mittens with uneven thumbs," Hope shook her hands in front of their faces, her mitts flopping about. "As you can see, I clearly inherited her artistic gifts."

"I love your mittens," Maria chuckled, now noticing the uneven thumbs after she'd mentioned them, as she slid her hands inside of them too, "because they're tandem."

Hope giggled, "Just how I planned them to be."

"You're a genius."

Suddenly they heard the elevator ping where Maria caught sight of Cassie and Scott. The little girl made Maria slide her hands out of the mittens, rip off her touque, and jump to her feet as the girl cheered, "Commander Maria," hurrying over to her as Maria quickly moved to the other side of the sofa to meet her.

"Hey, kid," Maria smiled, dropping to her knee right before Cassie threw her arms around her neck. Maria hugged her back, finding the utmost comfort from the unadulterated love that Cassie had shown her through her innocence. "Or should I say, Agent Lang," Maria tugged her back so that she could look at her.

"I did exactly what you told me to do," she smiled with pride.

"I know. You saved the whole planet."

She asked in surprised awe, "I did?"

"You sure did."

"Wow," her eyes lit up, "saving the planet is really easy."

Her comment brought Maria's thoughts back to all the horrible sacrifices that she had made. All the people who had to die due to her choices for the sake of saving the world. "I'm glad to hear that," her voice came out so hollow.

Her facial expression must have matched her voice for the next thing she felt were little hands on her cheeks. "Are you feeling okay?" Cassie asked her with such concern in her big eyes. "Are you sick like Hope was?"

"Like I was?" Hope came around the couch to stand closer to them, her reading glasses and scarf now off.

"Yeah," Cassie let go of Maria to walk to Hope. "Daddy said you weren't feeling well, that's why you were away for so long."

"Oh," she said so softly before shifting her gaze to Scott who was giving her a sympathetic look. Maria assumed Hope had not seen Cassie in a long time, and by the pain in the woman's eyes, she concluded that it may have been Maria's fault.

"But you're feeling better now, right?" Cassie asked.

Hope then nodded as she looked to Maria. "Much better," she smiled, which confirmed her suspicions that Maria was indeed the cause of her absence.

"Good," Cassie smiled, hugging Hope around the waist.

"So, I hear you guys are going to watch Star Wars," Scott finally got a word in as he put Cassie's little Ninja Turtles overnight bag, that was covered in both Avengers and My Little Pony stickers, on the floor, off to the side.

"Yep," Maria said as she stood back up.

"A New Hope?"

"Of course. That's the only rational place to start,"

"Ah man," he groaned, "it's too bad I'm not only gonna miss Cassie's reaction to seeing Star Wars for the first time, but Hope's too."

"You want to stay and watch it with us?" Maria suggested.

"I don't want to crash your party."

"Daddy, you can stay but only for the movie, then you have to leave because it's a girls only sleepover."

"That's fine, 'cause I have to go check in with Uncle Luis tonight anyway," he smiled excitedly.

"How come he's my Uncle but Hope and Commander Maria aren't my aunties? Aren't they part of the family too?"

"Of course they're part of the family," he said earnestly.

"So theyaremy aunties?"

Scott looked back and forth between Hope and Maria, like he was trying to get them to telepathically tell him that they consented to this new title. "Yeah," he focused on his daughter, "they are your aunties." Maria had to bite down on a grin, ecstatic that she'd been deemed a part of Cassie's family along with Hope.

"Does this mean that I get to call you Auntie Hope now?" Cassie asked Hope, her arms still around her waist.

Hope smiled warmly at her; pushing hair out of her face, "If you'd like to."

"Yeah!" The girl literally bounced on the balls of her feet, before moving back to Maria, looking up at her. "And Auntie…." she cocked her head in confusion, "Commander Maria?"

"That seems rather long, doesn't it?" Maria smiled.

"Yeah."

"Well," Maria concluded, "Auntie definitely outranks 'Commander'."

She looked to Maria in puzzlement, not understanding what she was saying. Scott then jumped in as he began to explain. "You don't have to call her Commander if you call her Auntie, because Auntie is more powerful."

"It is?" She looked to him with surprise.

"Commanders boss agents around, but aunties convince moms to let their nieces have sleepovers on school nights. Which one do you think is more powerful?"

"Auntie!" She cheered, turning back to Maria with a huge grin which nearly made the woman tear up.

"Speaking of agents," Maria continued in her happy mood, "we got something for you, Agent Lang."

"Two somethings, actually," Hope passed Maria Cassie's gift from off of the sofa's armrest.

Maria threw one of the shirts over her shoulder as she unfolded the 'Agent In Training' one; holding it up for Cassie to see.

"That's me!" Cassie gasped, while wasting no time in yanking the item over her head to put it on over the rainbow shirt that she was already wearing. "Look, Daddy!" She spun around to show him.

He read it before smiling, "Oh, that's very--"

But before he could finish his complement, the girl twirled back around and blurred with excitement, "what's the other one?"

Chuckling at her enthusiasm, Maria held up the second shirt. "I get to be an Avenger like Auntie Hope too?" Her eyes widened with shock.

"Hey, I'm also an Avenger," Scott pointed out.

"Oh yeah. I forgot," Cassie admitted.

"Really?" He scoffed light-heartedly.

Cassie then looked back to Maria as the woman began explaining. "Yeah, when your Auntie Hope gets old," Maria's then teasingly looked to Hope, "well, older than she already is," which resulted in Hope making a face at her, "she's going to need you to take her place on the team," Maria focused back on the girl.

"I get to be The Wasp?" She asked in the utmost excitement before turning to Hope.

"Only if you can prove you can handle it," Hope smiled at her.

"Oh, I will! I'll be the best Agent Commander Wasp, I promise."

"Commander?" Maria asked.

"Yes!" Cassie explained. "You'll need someone to take your place too when you get old."

"You better grow up fast then, 'cause she's already looking pretty worn out," Hope said cheekily as she looked to Maria, who narrowed her eyes at her.

"Okay," Scott interjected, "but how about before we ship you off to S.H.I.E L.D.'s training program and Avenger bootcamp, you finish the fourth grade first?"

Cassie agreed with her dad, "Yeah, okay," before she turned to hug Maria, "Thank you for my shirts, Auntie Maria."

"You're welcome," she rubbed the girls back, happy at how positive she'd reacted to her gifts.

Cassie then moved to the other woman. "Thank you too, Auntie Hope," she hugged around Hope's waist again. "I won't let you down," she said; clearly referring to being Hope's successor, which made Hope giggle. "Can we watch the movie now?" The girl smiled up at her as she began tying her second shirt around her neck like a cape.

"Yes," Hope grinned with a nod.

"But first we have to get snacks ready, 'cause your Auntie Hope failed to do so," Maria teased while moving to the kitchen, "she was too distracted by science to do her important food preparation job." Cassie instantly fell in line next to Maria, evidently wanting to help her.

"They're ready!" Hope gawked, "the popcorn kernels are already in the air-popper, all you have to do is turn it on and then butter and season it." she pointed off towards the salt and margarine on the counter. "And the chip bags are sitting in bowls, just needing to be opened and poured into them."

Scott then called over "Cassie, is a job that's partially done considered completed?"

"No way! Mom says if it's not 100% it's not finished."

Maria noticed Hope glaring at him before the Commander looked to Cassie, "This is why you're my top agent. You understand these things."

Next thing Maria heard was a whomp sound; looking up to find a pillow in Scott's arms that Hope had clearly just hurled at his body. "Hey!" Scott cried.

"Can we make the popcorn in the dark?" Cassie asked Maria right before she ran off to her bag, pulling out her night vision goggles.

"Is that why your bag was so heavy?" Scott threw his hands to his hips, while watching his daughter quickly run back to Maria. "You better have packed actual clothes in that thing too."

Cassie ignored her dad's comments as she put on her headgear, which made Maria chuckle. She was so touched that she was still having fun with her gift.

As Maria began flicking off all the kitchen lights she heard Hope muttering something to Scott before she addressed the two in the kitchen. "We're just gonna go to the bedroom for a few minutes, okay?"

"Kay," Maria responded; already knowing the reason for their dismissal. She then gave her a reassuring nod, noticing the nervous look on Hope's face as they passed by them to disappear into the other room.

* * *

Hope led Scott into the bedroom, hearing the sound of the air popper before she closed the door and went slowly to the dresser, turning around to lean up against it; practically sitting atop it. She crossed her arms, hugging herself as she looked to Scott who chose to stand a little ways away. He scanned over the room, which made Hope wonder if he'd been thinking about the last time that they'd been in there alone together.

Their relationship had been so different then. Though, it was such a brief fling (both times), that it often seemed like it never happened at all, until little reminders like this would pop up. Or perhaps it wasn't the duration of it that made their relationship feel almost non-existent, but it was her feelings for Maria that put everything else into perspective of what they truly were. Her and Scott had been two isolated people who were forced together by circumstances, only to quickly use each other out of loneliness. He was fresh out of prison, and she was living in a self isolating prison of her own making.

Maybe they could've worked if things had been different. If they didn't rush into things. If she had emotionally let him in. If he'd emotionally let her in. If he hadn't gone to the Raft. If she hadn't met Maria. If he didn't have a family. If she had the desire to settle down. Who's really to say? The only thing she knew for sure was that she loved having him as a friend, and never wanted him to be absent in her life.

"Ahh," She began timidly, not knowing where to start or how to say what she needed to say, "I've been thinking that," she awkwardly cleared her throat, "I'd like to-- It's just," she struggled to find the words, "I've been talking with Maria and--"

"You want to relocate to the East Coast and join S.H.I.E.L.D.'s agent program so you can work with the Avengers full time?"

"How--?" She cocked her head in confusion, "did Maria tell you?" She wondered; though she didn't believe that she had. Maria knew that it was Hope's news to tell him, and not hers.

"No," he smirked, "Honestly, ever since we joined the Avengers, I've been waiting for this conversation to come."

"You have?" She asked in complete shock.

"Yeah. You love throwing down way too much." He shrugged, "it was just inevitable you'd want to seek out as many opportunities to fulfill your need to punch people in the face."

Hope couldn't help but smile at how he was reacting so far, "you make me sound so violent."

"Hey, if the shoe fits."

She chuckled, "shut up!" Where he gave her a lopsided smile. She then continued in a more serious manner. "So if you've been waiting for this conversation, does this mean you know where you stand with it?" She then timidly asked, already knowing the answer, "you wouldn't want to join me over there, would you?"

He sighed before responding, "my family's here. I can't leave them, not for that kind of long term commitment. I already missed so much of their lives --especially Cassie's life-- when I was in prison." He then added, "both times."

"Yeah, I know," Hope said in a small voice.

"I have to stay here," he admitted with a heavy heart.

She nodded, "I figured you'd say that." She unfolded her arms, clasping them in her lap, "Where does this leave us then?"

"Well, we'll definitely see each other less, that's a given." He then smirked at her, "which is lucky for you 'cause you'll finally be spared from me constantly asking you to pick a card, like ten times in a row, every time I'm learning a new trick."

Hope smiled, "which is honestly the real reason I'm wanting to go."

"I knew it," he nodded before shrugging as he continued, "and I guess I'll have to find a new trainer to beat me up in your absence." Hope chuckled at his words. "And you'll have to watch all of Cassie's school plays over phone camera, 'cause there's no way she's going to let you off the hook for missing any of those, even if you're off far away saving the day." Hope loved that he wasn't allowing the thought of a physical separation, take away from her importance in his daughter's life.

"And us?" Hope asked in all earnestness, "What about all that stuff we agreed to about how we'd always be partners? That we're 'Ant-Man and The Wasp' no matter what?" She referenced their conversation back in the Avengers Tower.

"Well, first of all, we should finally be honest with ourselves about what we truly are and always have been. Which isn't 'Ant-Man and The Wasp' but actually 'The Wasp and Her Sidekick Ant-Man'." Hope laughed, finding his words to be ridiculous. "And once we acknowledge this fact, it'll be much easier to accept that the sidekick isn't always present in the hero's journey."

"You're hardly my sidekick," she scoffed, thinking on how he got to use his Pym Particle suit before she had.

"No?" he raised his brows, like she was challenging his analysis. "You're a legacy Avenger who literally trained me. Everything I know about being Ant-Man I learned from you. Also, I don't even know how my own suit works. Every time it malfunctions I have to get either you or your dad to fix it for me."

"When you put it that way, I'm starting to see your point," she said half jokingly (but only half).

"Yeah," he nodded with a smirk. "And let's not pretend that you're not the intense one and I'm not the goofy comic relief." Hope couldn't help but laugh, seeing the undeniable truth to his last statement. "We are the formula, through and through. You're SpongeBob and I'm Patrick."

"I have no idea who those people are."

"That's exactly what the hero would say to her sidekick about two cartoon characters," he pointed at her with a goofy intensity.

She shook her head, biting down a grin. "So," her light-hearted mood soon dropped, guilt seeping into her conscious, "you're not mad that I'm wanting to do this to us?"

"Mad? He shook his head as he approached her. "No way." His proximity and overall understanding towards the situation, made her stand upright so that she could wrap her arms around him. He hugged her back as he said, "you're going to do great over there." Hope smiled as she breathed a sigh of relief into his shoulder. "And everytime the Avengers are all together," he tugged her back so that he could look at her, "I'll be back by your side."

Hope was so touched as she said in a small voice, "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For not giving up on me through this."

"I mean, I did tell you I'd support you and be there for you in whatever capacity you needed," he looked to her with shining eyes.

She nodded with a smile, "It's true, you did say that," still a little amazed that he kept his word. Not that the skepticism came from her distrust in Scott, but rather a distrust in humanity as a whole. Most talked the talk but didn't walk the walk. But Scott was different. He was better than that.

Suddenly the door opened where Cassie poked her head through, goggles still on, as she asked enthusiastically, "are you guys done yet? 'Cause the snacks are ready and so are we!"

Hope and Scott shared a look, where they both ended up smiling at each other before Scott answer, "yeah, we're coming." He then went to his daughter where she pushed him towards the living room. She then grabbed Hope's hand, pulling her into the dimly lit room and over to the sofa, that had been cleared off of Hope's knittings and things, where she positioned herself right between her two aunties. Scott sat on the love seat next to the chesterfield.

Hope turned to Maria, who was looking to her with curiosity. She simply smiled and nodded, indicating to her that their conversation had gone well. Maria smiled back, reaching around Cassie's head, to place a hand on Hope's shoulder; her arm resting on the top of the couch. Hope folder her arm up to take a hold of Maria's hand in her own, lovingly squeezing it before turning to grab the remote next to her, pressing play on the DVD menu that was being projected onto a screen. A screen that was normally rolled up into the ceiling, out of sight, and usually out of use. Hope very rarely watched anything in her apartment, unless it was the news, a lecture, or a documentary, all in which she'd view on either her laptop or smartphone, so her entertainment equipment got very little usage.

Cassie took off her goggles before grabbing the bowl of popcorn from atop the ottoman-table. Hope let go of Maria's hand so she was free to take a handful of popcorn, ready to watch this movie that she'd been ridiculed long enough for not seeing.

They'd been watching the film for about forty-five minutes, where Hope was somewhat enjoying it; yet still not quite understandable all the hype around it, when they were interrupted by a phone ringing.

They all looked about, noticing that it was coming from the kitchen. "Is that yours?" Hope looked to Maria as she paused the movie.

Maria hopped off the couch, speedily moving to the counter. "Yeah," she responded to Hope right before she answered it, bringing it up to her ear. "Hello?" Hope could only hear a muffled voice from the other end before Maria responded, "Yes," into the phone. After a brief pause, she said, "okay, I'll be right there to let you--" She seemed to be cut off as the person talked. "Oh, the fourth floor," she said as she looked towards the elevator, which really peeked Hopes interest as Maria then hung up the phone. She then turned to Hope as she mouthed, "Parole officer."

"They're here now?" Hope was a little surprised, thinking that they'd give her a bigger heads-up.

"Yeah."

"Who's here?" Cassie wondered.

"Do you want us to get out of here while you bring them up?" Hope asked Maria while temporarily ignoring Cassie; needing to know in that moment if she had to herd the Langs downstairs out of the way.

"Nah, It should be fine. It kinda sounded like he's already on his way up anyway." Maria started making her way to the elevator after flicking on a few lights; brightening the space. "Hopefully it'll be quick and we can get back to Leia saving the day," she made sure to say that last part while looking to Cassie, giving her a cheeky look.

"Princess Leia," the girl adorably corrected her. It was plain to see that Cassie was loving the movie so far and had a soft spot for Carrie Fisher's character.

"Yes, Princess Leia. Who is also a member of the Imperial Senate and an agent of the Rebel Alliance," Maria nodded as she pushed the button to call the elevator.

"An Agent? Like us?"

"Exactly like us."

The elevator doors opened, where Hope noticed Maria taking a step back as a man's voice was heard from within the lift. "You must be Commander Hill," a Chinese-American man, wearing a suit with a black bag slung over his shoulder, stepped out, "I'm--"

"Agent Woo?" Scott stood up to the man's presence.

"Scott?" He looked totally taken aback.

"What are you doing here?" Cassie then sprang off the back of the sofa, taking a few steps towards the new arrival "My daddy didn't do anything wrong, stop bugging him!" She said, clearly upset that he was there.

"I'm not here for your daddy," he said a little condescendingly before pointing to Maria, "I'm here for her."

"Well, you can't boss her around because she's the Commander, and no one can tell her what to do," she folded her arms over her chest.

"No one is bossing anyone around, okay," Woo almost sounded defensive as he explained, "I just have to fill out this report," he held up a clipboard that he had in hand. "Do you not understand contractual obligation? Because even the Commander here has to abide by certain parameters," he said as he gestured to Maria.

Maria moved to Cassie, standing behind her as she rested her hands on her shoulders. "Cassie, it's okay. He's just doing his job," she gently reassured her before taking her hand, "Come, lets allow Agent Woo to come in," she guided her to that back of the sofa where Hope, who was kneeling on the other side facing them, reached out to Cassie, turning her around to stand in front of her. Maria planted herself next to Cassie too, like they were both guarding Woo from her.

The agent scanned the room, but as his gaze locked with Scott's, he huffed, like there was bad blood there, and abruptly looked to his form. His behaviour instantly peeked Hope's interest, realising that Scott had never told her about the agent who was responsible for monitoring him while he was under house arrest.

"Okay, I need a visual of your ankle monitor," he then looked to Maria, taking a step towards her. Maria complied, looking completely unbothered, as she lifted her pant leg up for him to examine it.

"Whoa, that thing is so small compared to what I had," Scott gasped.

"Your's was an arrest monitor, this isn't," Woo said coldly before bending down to get a better look at it. "Alright, it appears to be untampered with."

He straightened himself upright. His eyes then darted quickly towards Scott before he presented his pen, like he'd grabbed it right out of thin air.

"I see you picked up a little sleight of hand there," Scott pointed out, yet, unlike Agent Woo's attitude towards Scott, Scott didn't seem to have an attitude towards Woo.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he said, like he was trying to be nonchalant about it. He then started writing. Shortly he looked to Maria as he said in a professional manner, "I will be needing a urine sample from you today."

Scott then piped up. "Is that really necessary? She'll be off probation before it even gets to the lab."

He then snapped, pointing his pen at Scott, "I don't tell you how to do your job."

Scott then muttered under his breath, "No, you just tried stopping me from doing it in the first place."

"Wait," he examined him through slitted eyes while taking a step towards Scott, "was that a confession that you did violate your house arrest to do your little Ant-Man thing?"

Scott pursed his lips as he casually shook his head, "pretty sure it wasn't."

"I know what you did, Scott. And one day I'll prove it," he continued with the same accusatory tone while he stared him down.

"Sooo," Maria interrupted the tension as she said, "should I pee in a cup now or...? Hope had to bite down a chuckle at the whole ridiculous situation.

"Yes," he turned to her, falling back into a professional tone. "I'll have to monitor you to make sure you don't tamper with the sample."

Cassie then asked in confusion, "you're going to watch her go to the bathroom?"

"Yes, I had to do this to your father too. It's protocol," he said in slight agitation towards that particular question.

Hope heard the girl in front of her gasp before blurting out, "you watched my daddy pee?" She then snapped her head to look at Scott. "Daddy, he's a pervert!"

"I am not a pervert," Woo responded so quickly, before he started stuttering out in clear agitation, "It's not like Ilookedlooked at him as he--"

"Dude!" Scott gave him a look which communicated for him to just stop talking.

"You know what? It's fine," He took a calming breath before focusing back down to his form. "I don't need a urine test. You'll be off parole by the time it reaches the lab anyway," he said as if that was his conclusion and not Scott's. "I do have to ask you a few questions still," he looked up to Maria. "First off, why are you, the Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. --and, yes I know who you are, despite your completely blacked out file-- why are you staying with Scott's girlfriend for the duration of your parole?"

"That's not on your questionnaire," Scott put his hands on his hips.

"You don't know what's on here," his words came sharply as he addressed Scott. "And it's perfectly within procedure to ask about ones residents while on parole."

"Auntie Hope isn't my daddy's girlfriend," sweet little Cassie clarified. "He's dating my mom and Paxton."

"Wait, what?" His focus fell to the girl, with his hardened facial expression now looking confused and possibly a little hurt too.

Cassie then elaborated, like she were reciting an explanation that she'd had to say before. "Sometimes couples are two people and sometimes they can be three people."

"Couple literally means two though. That's the definition of the word."

"Not the time, Man," Scott stopped him, clearly not wanting Woo to confuse his daughter.

Woo then looked back to his paper as he quietly huffed, "so, I guess when you said 'no' to going out with me, it was just me, and not because I was a guy."

"Daddy, you hurt his feelings." Cassie looked over to her father, now seemingly feeling empathetic towards the man.

"I do not have hurt feelings," Woo grumbled before he pushed along. "Next question, have you handled any firearms during the duration of your parole?"

Maria simple answered, "No."

"Have you consumed alcohol and/or recreational drugs during your parole?"

"No."

Cassie then kindly asked Woo, "Did you find someone else to go out with?"

"Cassie!" Scott gasped.

She then explained to her dad. "Agent Woo may have been annoying when he used to always show up at your place and bug you, but that doesn't mean he should be sad and alone."

"I'm not sad and alone," the agent snapped defensively. "Well," he huffed, "I might be alone, but unless you're secretly twenty-one and can play wingman for me at the bars, I don't know how you're helping the situation any." He then focused back to his paper. "Next question."

"What if me and Paxton were to take you out and be your wingmen?" Scott suggested, with a kind sincerity in his voice.

"What?" He looked to him in surprise. "You guys would do that?" His question came so softly.

Scott shrugged with a lopsided smile, "sure."

"Okay. Well, ah," he suddenly sounded so giddy as he fumbled to take his business card out of his pocket. "I don't know if you still have my number or whatever. But here," he walked over to Scott, giving him the item.

Hope then leaned into Maria, talking in a low tone into her ear, "I'm so glad we didn't leave for your visit."

"You and me both," Maria smirked back at her. Hope then reached to grab the bowl of popcorn from the sofa cushion, putting it to rest in front of her on the back of the couch, as she started to snack on it with amusement; watching the two men.

"Does this Saturday night work for you?" Scott asked, "I know Paxton's not working then."

"Saturday? Yeah, Saturday sounds great."

"Cool, we'll text you and figure out a time and place."

"Yeah. Okay," Woo nodded with a giant smile on his face.

Suddenly the stairwell door swung open. "Mom?" Hope addressed Janet, who'd stepped halfway inside the apartment. Her mother quickly scanned the room, with an urgent look on her face.

The woman nodded as she looked to Scott's new friend. "Oh good, Agent Woo, you're still here."

"Oh my god, your Janet Van Dyne. The original Wasp." He put his hand to his heart as he said with the utmost sincerity, "thank you so much for your sacrifice all those years ago. You saved our city and… wait," he then cocked his head to the side, "how do you know who I am?"

Instead of answering him, Janet addressed the room. "Come quickly, everyone," she waved them over before disappearing back into the stairwell, calling out, "to the lab."

The room all shared a look of befuddlement before rushing to follow the woman.

Downstairs they found, standing in front of the large suspended monitor in the lab was, none other than, Nick Fury.

Hope had only ever seen Director Fury on television from news coverages, and never in person. He seemed shorter than she'd imagined him for some reason.

The man turned around to the sound of their arrival as Maria said in surprise, "Sir?"

"Hill," he greeted as they all approached. He then looked to Hope and Scott, with a single nod as he merely said, in the briefest first introduction possible, "Lang. Van Dyne," before he focused back to Maria. "We've got a situation."

Hope looked to her mother, wanting to understand why the director was there in their lab, but the woman went straight to the computer, which was set up on the nearby work table, fiddling with, what looked like, a video connection.

"Andreas de Ruyter," Fury continued to elaborate to Maria, with a single name, on why he was there.

Maria looked to be searching her memory before she said, "de Ruyter. A.K.A. The Bull. South African rebel."

"Not just a rebel, a radical," Janet surprised Hope as she was the one to brief them with this additional information. "He believes South Africa should be racially purged, and blames black people for all of Africa's problems. With a personal grudge against Wakanda. Not liking the black power their country represents."

"Goddamned white nationalists are everywhere," Hope grumbled under her breath.

"Yeah," Janet sighed, looking to her as she evidently made out her words, "I had the unfortunate opportunity of knowing his father, Adler de Ruyter."

"Hence why she's our consultant on this case," Fury gestured to Janet, which filled in quite a few questions for Hope.

Janet then nodded to Fury before continuing, "Adler was a friend and business associate of my father's. My dad overlooked this same ideology in his father that his son evidently shares, in favour of keeping him as a benefactor on his gamma ray project."

"Wow," Hope scoffed. "Colour me surprised that grandpa Vernon, with his mansion full of black servants, who he'd always referred to as "the help" could ever overlook that," her words came dripping in sarcasm in regards to her late grandfather. He had died when she was seven-years-old from a mysterious lab incident when he was testing his gamma-ray beam. Her mother, to this day, believes that he had been murdered, even though law enforcement kept insisting that it was an accident.

"Ah, Cass," Scott discreetly addressed his daughter, who had followed them down into the lab, "why don't you go up and visit with the lab rats right now, kay?" He lightly shoved her off in the direction of the stairs, that weren't terribly far away, where she obeyed his request without fighting back.

"So what's the current situation with de Ruyter junior?" Maria asked, her hands now behind her back and her feet shoulder width apart; standing at ease.

"We got eyes on de Ruyter's rebellion occupying the old underground South African research base in Reneen," Fury seemed to be addressing Maria specifically. "We have intel they're using the place to find the Impundulu."

Hope recognised the name immediately from a university literature class that she took in her first-year. "The legendary lightning bird of South African from Zulu folklore? Said to be as big as a human and can summon thunder storms?" Hope asked, very confused as to why this cryptoid was being brought up.

"Yes," Fury confirmed that that was indeed what he was referring to.

Scott shook his head at her like he were equally impressed and confused, "Why do you know that?" She innocently shrugged at him before he addressed the room. "Also, should we care at all that Woo is here for all this?" He pointed to the agent who was standing off to the back of their group.

Fury completely ignored Scott's question before he continued. "We believe the Impundulu is actually an old mutant creature who has been going in and out of hibernation for that past five thousand years, and is currently hiding out in a dried up subterranean river."

"And de Ruyter is after it as a weapon," Maria concluded out loud.

"Wanting to harvest the elements of the sky," Fury nodded to her.

Suddenly there was static followed by the sound of Steve's voice coming out of the labs speaker system. "We're in position now," the Captain said, as a video feed, of what looked to be a body camera, appeared on the large suspended monitor.

Fury turned to the computer where Janet pointed out a button on the keyboard for him. He pressed the key as he lowered his body to talk into a microphone that had been set up on the table. "Hold position."

"We're at the base now," Maria stated, eyes on the monitor as another three body camera viewing windows popped up along side Steve's.

"Correct. Problem is, we don't have the digital schematics of the facility."

Maria looked to him as she said in confusion, "we infiltrated this exact base six years back when we were working with the Wakandans."

"Yes, and all the data from that mission is gone. Wiped out during the A.I.M. attacks." Hope saw Maria physically flinch at his words. "Wakanda doesn't have records of it either, since it was an impromptu mission for them with Nakia alone."

"That woman is very good at showing up where the action is," Maria nodded; never dropping her serious demeanour. This was Maria in full commander mode. Tight jaw, rigid body, and pure concentration in her eyes.

Fury then stared Maria down, like they were having a telepathic conversation before he asked, "So, do we have the schematics of the base then?"

Maria swallowed before nodding, "Yes, we do, Sir."

"Good." he broke off their intense eye contact before saying, "I need you to walk our agents through here. We think the research facility was initially built for the intentions of finding this creature, so if they're looking for it, they should be deep, probably on the lowest level."

"The lowest level is where the generators are. They won't be there," Maria said matter of factly. "I'd gather they'd be two levels up from there on level Q, half a click down the South East tunnel." Maria then turned to study the monitor before asking, "How many strong are we?"

"Ten. We've got Rogers, Romanoff, and Myer's tac team."

Maria leaned into the mic, speaking into it, "You have a go to breach the entrance."

"Hill?" Steve asked in clear confusion.

"Rodgers." Maria simply said back to him.

"Good to have you with us." Hope could hear the smile through his voice.

Natasha then came in as she teased her, "are you violating your parole right now?"

"Are you violating your tactical equipment requirements right now?"

"Oh, God," Natasha groaned, "you're asking me if I'm wearing my knee pads, aren't you?"

"I am."

"How many vents do I have to crawl through in there?"

"A few."

"How long in total?"

It seemed that Maria was doing a quick calculation in her head before responding with, "Sixty-two metres."

"Damnit." Natasha sighed

Maria then went on to direct the team flawlessly through the facility, remembering every vent system and corridor like she were reading it off of a set of blueprints right in front of her. She was truly spectacular. Hope just couldn't believe how somebody could be that good at their job, she was truly born to be in command.

Hope had also wished that she was there with the team in Africa, especially when Natasha was navigating through all those tight crawl spaces. Hope would have easily been through all the vents there in literal seconds while in her shrunken form.

"We've apprehended de Ruyter's men, but de Ruyter himself isn't here," Steve came through the speakers, after they took over level Q; a heap of men now laying on the ground.

"Yeah, and there's this," Natasha, with her bodycam, showed a giant hole in the side of a cement wall, that burrowed into the Earth, traveling upwards. "Looks like they may have found it, and it breached the surface someplace else."

Fury sighed before he ordered them, "I'll send a science team your way to investigate. In the meantime, do a sweep of every floor."

Nataha responded with a, "yes, Sir."

Fury then nodded to Janet where the woman turned off the monitor. The director then looked to the man standing off in the back. "Agent Woo," he addressed him.

"Ah, yes?" He responded timidly.

"I hope you were able to ascertain from all this that S.H.I.E.L.D. is dealing with a situation here. A situation that requires its Commander." Woo nodded his head in understanding. "So, I need Hill on the continent of Africa like yesterday."

"Yeah, no I can see that," he responded like he were completely intimidated by the man

"So what can you do about it?" Fury asked, yet it didn't come out like a question. His words had then made Hope wondered if Fury had manipulated Woo's agency, so that he would visit Maria at this exact moment for this very purpose.

"Yeah, no," he nodded frantically, "I can definitely take off her ankle monitor, and say she's been here in San Francisco for the remainder of her parole."

"Good." he responded, but Woo didn't budge. After a silent moment, Fury then raised his brow to him as he said, "the ankle monitor?"

"Oh right!" Woo fumbled through his bag, quickly pulling out a tool before moving to Maria's leg; removing it with ease.

"Mrs. Van Dyne," Fury turned to Janet, "your assistance today was essential." He bowed his head. "We'll be in contact with you."

Fury then started towards the elevator as he called out over his shoulder, "Hill." Maria walked over to him as he stopped to call the lift. "You got ten minutes. I'll be out front."

The door opened, but before Fury could walk into the elevator he stopped when Cassie shouted, "No!" Where she then came barreling down the stairs to the duo at the lift. "You can't take her!" She yelled at him, as he turned around in response to her outburst. "We're having a sleepover right now," she clung tightly to Maria's waist, as Hope could see the girl physically shaking.

"Cassie," Scott gawked, clearly not pleased by her actions.

"No, Daddy!" She looked to him while she starting to cry, "she can't go. It's not fair." She then buried her face into Maria's hip.

Maria then gently loosened Cassie's grip around her as she dropped to her knees. "Hey, it's okay," she spoke gently to her, "You can finish watching Star Wars with Auntie Hope and--"

"No, I want you," she interrupted her as she flung her arms around her neck, where she began to cry into her shoulder. Maria wrapped her arms around her body as she picked her up into her arms; standing to her feet. Hope felt Cassie's pain, for all she wanted to do was scream and cling to Maria too; not wanting her to leave either.

"Cassie Lang, is it?" Fury calmly addressed the girl.

Cassie slowly turned her head, tears streaming down her face, as she looked at the man. "Yeah?"

"You played a helpful role in Commander Hill's mission."

Cassie sniffled before she said through a shaky voice. "I saved the world. Auntie Maria told me so."

"She's right, you did." He then nodded like he was working things through in his head. "So, to honour you're heroism, we'll allow your Auntie to leave tomorrow morning instead of tonight."

"Really?" Cassie bounced in Maria's arms just after Fury nodded to her in conformation. "Thank you," she blurted before looking back to Maria. "you can stay!" She cheered like she didn't just have a breakdown mere seconds ago.

Before Maria could respond to Cassie, Fury had addressed her, "at 0600 there will be a transport right outside this building."

"Understood, Sir," she said professionally before the man loaded into the elevator, disappearing behind its doors.

"Wow," Scott shook his head like he still couldn't quite believe it, "that was some top tier emotional manipulation there, Peanut. I don't know if I should be mad at you or proud of you, for getting big serious Director Fury to let Maria stay."

"She has to stay to watch Star Wars with us," Cassie hiccuped through a smile.

"Actually, I think I'm gonna let you girls continue on without me. It's getting late and uncle Luis has already texted asking where I am," he waved his phone in the air.

"Okay," Cassie said rather uncaringly. She had her Auntie Maria, and that's all that seemed to matter to her.

"Woo," Scott looked to him, after saying goodbye to the girls.

"Please, call me Jimmy."

"Alright, Jim-Bo, how about I walk your cute, helpful butt downstairs?" He slapped his shoulder before guiding the now blushing man to the stairwell.

"Auntie Janet," Cassie looked to the woman who was wrapping a cord around the mic that they'd just previously used. "You're a girl. You can come watch the movie with us if you want."

"Thank you, Sweetheart," she smiled warmly at her, "but I think I'm going to finish up some work here."

"Well when you're done you can come then." Cassie smiled.

"We'll see," Janet nodded, though Hope could tell that she had every intention of going home after she was done.

Hope then noticed Maria wincing, which made her assume that Cassie was hurting her ribs as she was pressed up against her torso. Hope then quickly stepped to them as she scooped her out of Maria's arms, "Come here, Cassie." She then lowered her to the floor, "How about you see if you can beat us to the apartment. We'll take the elevator, you take the stairs."

"Okay!" She then went running off into the stairwell.

Hope looked to Maria, satisfied that she was no longer making any pain stricken faces, before she focused onto her mother. "You're consulting?" She asked, very intrigued by her actions that evening.

"Yes." She nodded, "We'll talk about it later. Right now you have more important things to be doing," Janet said, gesturing to Maria with her head, before she walked away towards the bridge's control deck, mic in hand.

When Hope looked back to Maria, she noticed that she was now staring off into the distance, with that same downtrodden expression that she had on that day that she was released from prison.

Hope gently reached over to take Maria's hands in her own; stepping right in front of her. "You, okay?" She asked softly. Maria didn't look to her, instead she kept her gaze fixed on some random point past Hope's ear, as she nodded unconvincingly. Hope could see the turmoil in her eyes. "Do you want to go with Fury now?"

"I--" she dropped her head shaking it, "it's just, we're missing crucial data." She sighed heavily before she brought her head up; looking into Hope's eyes, "All I want to do is set things right."

Hope hated to offer this, but she knew that she had to. "We can take this elevator down if that's what you need." Hope reached to hover her finger over the 'down arrow' call button. She was completely prepared to send her away if leaving would bring her even an iota of ease. She just hated seeing her suffer.

Maria stared at Hope's finger for a moment, as Hope could see the cogs turning in her head. Maria then reached out herself, and pressed the 'up arrow' button before she focused on her, with a smirk on her face, "Cassie's waiting." Yet Hope could still see the pain in her eyes. A pain that Maria seemed to be desperately trying to keep concealed.

Hope nodded, praying that Maria's decision was what she'd truly wanted, and she wasn't making it because of her and Cassie.

When the elevator reached them, they loaded in together to restart their sleepover party as best they could.

The rest of the evening had still managed to be fun and enjoyable. However, Maria's smiles were smaller and the twinkle in her eyes was muted. It didn't seem like Maria had been forcing herself to have a good time, rather, she was being distracted by a heavy weight. Not unlike a person with chronic pain just trying to enjoy a lovely moment.

It wasn't until eleven o'clock that the three of them all crawled into bed, Cassie insisting to be in the middle. It didn't take long for the girl to fall asleep. She'd been asking Maria so many questions about her job that eventually during her explanation on helicarrier battle tactics, Cassie has drifted off into slumber. Maria didn't take long after that to pass out too, when Hope took advantage of the situation to watch the two of them as they laid there so peacefully beside her. She was going to miss them; knowing that she'd be crawling into an empty bed for quite awhile after that night. Eventually she too fell asleep, not wanting the morning to come. Not looking forward to saying goodbye.

* * *

Maria had set herself an alarm for that morning, but woke up a few minutes prior to it going off. Her body had developed a good internal clock over the years; she rarely relied on exterior means to get her up.

The room was dimly lit, with Cassie's night-light partially illuminating the space. Maria turned her body over to find Hope hugging Cassie's little body into her side. The sight made her smile, though it was a sad smile; hating that she had to leave them.

She then crawled out of bed before closing herself into the washroom to get herself ready to leave. She showered and put on her blue S.H I.E.L.D. uniform. It was one of her spares that she'd retrieved out of her SUV that Hope had eventually agreed to grow to size for her.

Doing up her zipper to just underneath her collar, she sighed; feeling like she had absolutely no right to be wearing the uniform. She stared at the S.H.I.E.L.D. patch on her arm like it was haunting her, calling her a traitor. The insignia had reminded her of the evening before, while she was directing her agents. Her hands had been sweaty the whole way through it. She had been nervous. Maria Hill did not get clammy palms on missions. She was always comfortably in control; knowing that her actions were just, and that she herself was just in doing them. But that's not how she felt now.

She forced herself away from the mirror for her own sanity, before she scooped up her bag and excited the bathroom.

"Maria?" Hope grumbled through a sleep drenched voice before she began pushing her body to sit up. Maria dropped her duffle on the floor before she went to Hope; sitting on the edge of the bed where she wrapped her arms around her lower back to help her upright.

Hope hugged her in return as Maria quietly said, "I'm going to bring your request to Fury and Steve." She wanted to assure her that even in the midst of their Ruyter situation, she hadn't forgotten about Hope's desire to join the agent's program.

"Okay. Thank you," she replied simply.

Maria gently nodded, as her thoughts fell onto all the things that were awaiting her with S.H.I.E.L.D. She didn't know who was privy to her double crossing actions. The ones that brought about all the innocent deaths, and digitally whipped out pertinent intelligence data. Would she forever be known as the one who attacked S.H.I.E.L.D. from the inside?

"Hey," Hope pulled her out of her thoughts. "It's all gonna be set right," she said as if she was reading her mind, while she cupped Maria's face in her hands, "Don't ever forget that it's because of you that there's something still standing to even be corrected in the first place." Hope referred to the fact that they were still alive to do anything at all. Maria swallowed hard, knowing in her head that she was right, but the knowledge had not yet reached her heart, and probably never would.

Suddenly there was a flash of light that shone through the window. Hope dropped her hands away from Maria's face as they both turned to catch sight of a quinjet descending next to the building as it landed.

Maria's gaze remained static as she looked out of the window. Her ride was no longer in view, but its lights illuminated some of the surrounding trees that she was now fixated on. Her anxieties shifted from her unworthiness with S.H.I.E.L.D, to her fears of abandoning Hope for yet another time.

"You know when you said you wanted to be with me, even if we only saw each other for a week out of the year?" Maria asked, her focus still diverted from Hope.

"Yeah?"

"Was that seven days consecutive or cumulative?" Maria sighed, shaking her head as she finally looked to her beautiful girlfriend. "Because I can't even manage to stay put when I'm under a multi-governmental sanctioned conditional release."

"You don't need to worry about that," Hope shook her head. "You don't need to worry about us," she said with purpose. "Go, do what you need to do. Call me when you can. And we'll see each other soon enough." Maria was always so overwhelmed by just how patient Hope consistently was with her. Hope then got a glimmer in her eyes before she went to reach over to the bedside table, grabbing the blue toque that she had knitted. "Don't forget your hat," she smirked, tugging it over her head. "I've heard African windchills are even colder than Mexican one."

Maria smiled at her silly comment before she slid her fingers into Hope's hair at her scalp, combing through it as she pushed her thick mane behind her ear. "I love you," Maria whispered.

"And I love you," Hope muttered as she pushed her mouth to hers.

Maria savoured the kiss; already missing Hope before their lips had even parted.

She hated to break away from Hope, but her time had expired and she had obligations to see to. Maria slowly stood up, taking one last look at Cassie, who was still sound asleep, and then to Hope.

Maria picked up her bag; throwing it over her shoulder as Hope said, "Goodbye, Maria," with a touch of sadness in her voice.

Maria smiled ever so softly, locking her gaze with hers as she replied, "Goodbye, Hope." Maria then nodded, more to herself as a self motivator to step away, before she turned around and left. Scared anticipation flowing through her veins; not at all emotionally prepared for what was ahead of her.


	27. Twenty-Seventh

Maria walked through the tents of their temporary, hidden camp that was set up a few kilometres outside of de Ruyter's Boer National Union current rendezvous; located in the South African province of Western Cape.

She approached a man, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt that read B.N.U. across it. "Agent Kruger," Maria addressed him. "According to your file, you speak fluent Afrikaans."

"Yes, Ma'am. I was born in Johannesburg, raised in Albany. I didn't learn English until kindergarten."

"You don't have much time logged in the field."

"Ah, yeah, that's true," he nodded, "I mostly just do data analysis." Maria looked to him with skepticism, "But I assure you," his eyes widened as he started to sell himself, "I'm up for a challenge and looking forward to this opportunity to build on my practical skills."

His words angered her, where she curtly said, "You think you're instilling faith in me by calling a reconnaissance mission, with millions of potential lives on the line, a challenging opportunity for your own personal growth?" She raised her brow.

"N-no, Ma'am," he stuttered out in fear. "I didn't… I mean. You can count on me to do the job," he tried his best to assure her that he could handle being undercover and gain entrance into the white supremacists' organisation.

She glared him down, watching him shaking in his boots, before she spun around; facing the tactical unit leader. "Agent Myer."

"Ma'am?"

"Get your team ready," she ordered him. "We leave in twenty."

"Yes, Ma'am," he nodded before Maria turned to walk away from her men.

Almost immediately, Steve fell in line beside her. "Scaring the newbies doesn't usually help their performances," he casually said to her.

"I wasn't scaring anybody, I was simply focusing the desk jockey," she said plainly.

"Pretty sure I saw tears in his eyes."

"And that's why I think he'll choke out there. He's too soft."

"He'll be just fine. Nat will be right next to him the entire time." Maria huffed, knowing that Natasha being fluent in Dutch didn't mean that she could monitor the young agent as best she could if she'd known the African derivative of the language too. "Everything's going to be fine. It always is when you're involved," Steve smiled encouragingly at her.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready right now?" Maria snapped at him; hating that he was both lying to her and coddling her. Things were not better with her involvement, and he needed to acknowledge that and stop handling her with kid gloves.

"Yeah, I'm going," he said professionally, yet she could still hear optimism in his voice.

Steve was trying so hard with her, wanting her to open up --or at the very least-- relax a bit. But she wasn't giving him the results that he was looking for. She was stressed more than ever.

Just as Maria passed by the back of the weapons tent, where her men were starting to gear up inside of it, her phone vibrated in her pocket. Stopping, she pulled it out to see that Hope had texted her.

The message read:

Hey, it's me again. I'm assuming you're really busy right now but I wanted to say thanks for sending my request along. I just got a call from recruitment. They're sending me to Pennsylvania in a few days.

Anyway, I hope you're doing alright over there. You're in my thoughts.

She felt such guilt. This was Hope's third text to her, and Maria had yet to respond to the two prior. Maria had managed to tell Fury and Steve that Hope wanted to become permanent. She did it on her way over to Africa. But as soon as she landed, she had completely lost herself in her work. Nothing else existed but her mission. She felt that she had to prove herself to be both worthy and safe, not only for S.H.I.E.L.D., but for Hope too. She saw herself as an overall risk to everyone.

After reading this last message, Maria knew that she really had to respond. This was a huge deal. Hope was stepping into a new phase in her life. But yet, she couldn't bring herself to type anything out. She didn't want to open up a dialogue because it would lead to her having to talk about herself, and she wasn't ready for that. Instead she stared at her phone screen, cursing at herself to move her thumb across her keypad and type something out. To acknowledge Hope. To not be a complete dick towards her.

"You think the scuttlebutt is true about her?" Maria heard one of her agents say from the other side of the tent wall that she was standing right next to, as her focus was pulled away from her phone.

"That the attacks were because of her?" Maria's head jerked up to look at the canvas wall, recognising Myer's voice; her attention now totally shifted away from her conundrum with Hope, to the conversation in progress.

"Yeah," came the same voice, who Maria now recognised to be Myer's second in command, Peter Kelly.

"I don't know. Commander's definitely a hardass who scares me more than Fury ever could."

"Fury?" Kelly interjected. "More like God himself on judgment day,"

"True. But I have a hard time believing she's a genuine monster who'd kill her own."

"We all heard Romanoff mentioning her breaking parole when we were breaching Reneen. Why would she say that if she wasn't involved in something sketchy?"

"It could've just been an inside joke knowing those two," Myer's suggested a possible explanation.

"So you think she's innocent?"

"Honestly, I dunno," He paused for a moment before sighing, "maybe I could see it. I mean, we're all still just pawns on her chessboard after all. I don't even think she fully sees us as people."

Did she see them as people?Maria wondered to herself. She did view everything as numbers while strategically planning. Whether it be strength, location, time, or weapons; like she was solving a mathematical equation. Faces fell away when she was commanding.God, she thought to herself,she really was a monster.

"Quit your lollygagging and gear up," Steve's voice harshly cut through their conversation.

"Yes, Captain," Myer's voice jumped, answering in fear.

"Sorry, Captain," Kelly blurted after.

The fresh message that she was a monster, translated in her mind to specifically mean that she would bring more harm to all her pawns, which now included Hope, just like she had done before.

With irrational anxiety, Maria shoved her phone back inside her pocket as her heart began racing. Her breathing too, started to fall short, while her palms became clammy. She closed her eyes and tried to take a few calming breaths; not able to deal with Hope. Not just her text message, but with her all together. It's not that she didn't care about her, on the contrary, she cared so, so much. It was just that it was all too much. Everything was too much.

* * *

Hope fired her weapon at a man who dropped to the ground, as her and her two teammates, ran past him and into a large shed.

The three of them did a quick sweep of the place before they gathered together; discovering that they were alone, save for all the tools and old military Jeeps that were stripped down to their parts inside of the sizable enclosure.

"Any thoughts?" A young short woman, in her early twenties, with brown, wavy, shoulder length hair, asked.

Hope scanned the space, an idea emerging, as her gaze caught on a longboard that was leaning up against a tool cabinet. "What were the rules exactly when we get shot?"

"We have to hit the ground and stay put," the woman said.

"And what if we're not on the ground when we get hit?"

Her other partner, a tall, handsome, first nation's man who was around Hope's age, shrugged, "I suppose we simply go limp wherever we are."

Hope nodded, assuming that same thing. She then asked him, "we've all seen how quickly you move. How fast can you sprint?"

"Thirty-five miles per hour." Both women gawked at his answer.

"Alright then," Hope smiled; admittedly impressed by him, "how are your climbing skills?"

"Excellent," he said, which did not surprise her in the least. He was like a Navajo version of Captain America, which arguably made him an even more qualified Captain America than Steve.

"Kay," Hope nodded, "I think I've got an idea."

Their objective was capture the flag. It was their team of three, against twenty S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives. There was only one flag in their opponent's possession that they had to reach without getting shot.

Shortly after Maria had left for Africa, Hope was sent off to The Farm, which was part of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s training program, just outside of Pittsburgh. She'd been there for nearly three weeks now, with Sharon Carter running her particular class. There were only three of them, herself, Rosalind (Roz) Solomon, a recent S.H.I.E.L.D. academy graduate, who'd requested to be there; wanting to gain as much experience as possible (clearly an overachiever), and Jason Strongbow, who was coming out of the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety. The man had a lot of experience under his belt and had special abilities akin to Steve's but unlike the captain's supersoldier serum, Jason went through a radiation induced mutation caused by a sonic blast inside of a uranium mine.

Hope grabbed the longboard and spun its wheels to make sure that it was in working order. She was then quick to grab a can of WD40 off of a messy countertop, not pleased with the rotation; spraying the bearings to make for a smoother ride.

"Okay," Hope moved to the other door, opposite the one they had entered from, poking her head through it. She studied the hardtop that ran all the way from their location to the tower that held the flag, which was hanging from the top of it. The building was about 150 metres away from them, so it was going to be a long ride, with --by the math-- at most, ten men between. Hope brought her head back into the building before she told her plan to Strongbow and Solomon.

A short while later, Hope and Solomon had exited the shed. The small woman was quick to piggyback onto Hope's shoulders right before she took off on the longboard towards their target.

Hope was never big into skateboarding, but a bunch of her friends had them growing up, so she'd hopped on their boards at times to cruise down the boardwalk at the beach. It really wasn't that much different than a surfboard when it came to balancing and steering. Though, with Solomon on her back, it took a little bit for Hope to adjust her movements to compensate for her; almost losing balance right out of the gate.

Once she found her stride and they made ground, it didn't take long until they were under fire. The bean bag bullets soared towards them from behind various crates, that were set up on the tarmac, as they passed by, where Solomon was quick to shoot back. The woman had both her gun and Hope's as she took out three hostiles with them. Hope had to admit, the girl had great aim.

Hope pushed them along, nearing the building, as the bullets multiplied with every metre they gained. Projectiles soon raining down on them from above as shots were now coming from the tower.

"Ah!" Solomon cried out. "I'm shot!" Her words made Hope buckle down and push harder as the woman tactfully slumped over Hope's shoulder, resting her head on top of hers; doing her best to shield Hope.

"We're almost there," Hope grunted as she quickly swerved the board to avoid a bean bag bullet that would have surely tripped them.

"Gah!" The girl yelled out again. "These things hurt," she said; clearly now getting shot repeatedly.

"Shit," Hope growled as a man stepped through the tower door as they were speeding right towards it. "Roz, I'm gunna toss you!"

"Do what ya gotta do!"

Just as the man raised his weapon to them, Hope skidded the board to the side, letting go of Solomon as she bodily crashed into the man. The action sent the longboard flying off and Hope crashing to the ground.

Hope hissed before she speedily scrambled to her feet. She was out of range from the shots above, since they were now under an overhang. She turned to the man, who was luckily struggling to get up with Solomon sprawled out over him; playing dead. Hope speedily grabbed Solomon's upper body, taking a hold of her gun that was tied to the girl's wrist and shot the man in the chest.

"Roz, you good?" She asked while nicely setting her down before she grabbed the knife out of her pocket, cutting the strings that fastened the weapons to Solomon's wrists. They'd afixed the guns to her so that when she was shot, she could drop them without losing them in transit. They didn't want to be accused of cheating if she'd held onto them while she was "dead".

"Yeah, I'm good," Roz gave a thumbs up from her death position while she was sprawled out on her back. Hope nodded, glad to hear that she didn't injure her partner as she holstered the one gun while bringing the other one up in front of her. "Go get 'em, Waspie," Roz called out to her just as Hope had opened the door to breach the building.

The tower had a metal grated staircase that spiraled up the sides of the building; reaching to the top, which made her able to see two hostiles about two storeys up. She assumed that they were the ones who had been firing on them from above when she was outside.

Hope then bolted up the stairs, as they quickly noticed her and tried to shoot her, but they didn't have a clear line of fire due to the stairs and their landings in the way. The two started making their way down to meet her, probably not wanting to waste their ammunition. As soon as they were about to round the corner to her, Hope shoved her gun inside her pants, and hopped up onto the railing, only to quickly climb to the next storey; bypassing them.

She'd only just pulled her body over the railing above them when she heard gunfire, and felt her own weapon slip out of her pants. They'd just missed her as they shot from below; while her gun went tumbling down the tower to hit the ground floor. "Shit," she muttered in reaction; now only having one gun left with limited ammunition. Pushing on, knowing that she'd only saved herself a few seconds with her shortcut, she quickly barreled at full speed up the stairs. She only had to travel a few more storeys before she had reached the top. Before entering onto the roof, she drew her holstered weapon. She then speedily burst through the door with the other two men not far behind her.

The top of the building was open with just a canopy roof sheltering it. But that was all she could note of her surroundings, for that as soon as she entered the space, she was shot repeatedly by Sharon Carter herself. The agent was clearly waiting for her and Hope was in too much of a rush to enter the floor in a more tactful way.

"Barrelling head first into a heavily armed building by yourself," Sharon placed her hand on her hip and she raised her gun to rest it by her shoulder, "not too brilliant, Van Dyne. But I guess I shouldn't fault you. I'm sure they didn't teach you how to properly infiltrate a building in finishing school."

Hope rolled her eyes, getting really tired of Sharon's constant jabs at her, jabs that only she had received out of the three of them. They were usually about how Hope was spoiled and had no appreciation for anything that didn't fit into her charmed lifestyle, or they were about Hope not having what it takes to become an agent. This time, however, she managed to nail both topics in one insult.

The door had shut behind her, where Hope could still hear the two men approaching through the barrier. But before they reached the closed threshold, Hope dropped to her butt, pushing her body against the door, before she flopped over.

"What are you…?" Sharon asked, as the guys started pushing at the door. Hope winced in pain as they very forcefully knocked it into her side, yet she tried her best to not allow them to roll her away. "Hold steady!" Sharon yelled at the two, clearly not pleased with the way they were whacking the door into Hope's body. Sharon may have not been her biggest fan, but she clearly didn't want for one of her trainees to end up with a broken rib either. As soon as she gave her orders, they stopped trying to beat down the door.

Then, like it had clicked in Sharon's head, she whipped her body around, only to find Jason, who had scaled the side of the building and was now perched on top of the railing, gun pointing directly at her. Before their instructor had time to react, Jason shot Sharon directly in the chest.

The man then hopped down and casually grabbed hold of the flag, giving Hope a smirk with a nod.

Hope slowly sat upright before she rose to her feet, as she watched Sharon very calmly pick up her walkie-talkie and speak into it. "Game's over. Flag has been captured."

Hope really couldn't tell if she was impressed by them or annoyed. Agent Carter was such an anomaly, who seemed to run hot and cold. Hope couldn't quite put her finger on her. Sharon then looked back and forth between her two students as she said, "we'll break for lunch and reconvene in the gym at thirteen hundred," and with that she left; entering the building.

Hope walked up to Jason, smiling where he offered the flag to her. "Did you have any trouble getting here?" She took the object from him.

"Not much. You and Roz kept them well distracted. I only had to take out one guy."

Hope nodded, "and how was the climb?"

"A little more challenging than scaling a cliff but still not that challenging."

Hope smiled, "show off."

"Me?" He walked to the door, opening it for her to pass through, "I thought that skate was much more impressive than my climb."

She chuckled as she felt her cheeks getting warm, finding the man extremely charming, before she said, "come on, let's go scrape Roz off the pavement and get some food."

"Sounds good to me, Chief," he winked. Hope grinned at his words, enjoying the flirtatious attention that he'd often given her, as she led the way down the tower.

On their lunch break, Hope had taken out her phone to see if Maria had called or texted her. During their time apart, Hope had tried calling once, and sent four separate texts to her, with no replies from her at all. Hope was sure that being back in the field was playing some kind of toll on her, but she was expecting Maria to let her know what was going on with her. But instead she was completely unresponsive.

Hope sighed, seeing only a message from Scott, who was checking in on her, with, again, nothing from Maria. She placed her phone face down on the table next to her food before dropping her chin into her hand.

"What is it, Waspy?" Roz asked her, from across the table, right before the young woman shoved a large club sandwich into her mouth.

"Nothing," Hope shook her head, reaching for the pepper shaker that was in front of Jason's plate, who was seated next to Roz. "Just haven't heard from my girlfriend in awhile."

"How long is awhile?" She mumbled through her mouth full of food.

"It's been a few weeks now," she sighed.

Roz swallowed her bite before gawking, "A few weeks?" Where Jason shook his head, as the two gave her disapproving looks.

"She has a crazy, busy workload so she doesn't always have the chance to contact me," Hope defended Maria.

"Dude," Roz continued, "unless she's an astronaut currently on mission to outer space, I'm sure she can find the time to send a --what?-- ten second text." Hope shrugged her shoulders, not really sure about the woman's rationale in this particular case. "Wait," Roz picked up on her apprehension, misreading it, "is she an astronaut? You've told us next to nothing about her."

"No, she's not an astronaut," Hope rolled her eyes at her, while still feeling unsure on how much information she should disclose about who she's dating. She was already acutely aware that people probably suspected nepotism for her being both there, at the farm, and in the Avengers, from her parents' connection with S.H.I.E.L.D.. The last thing she wanted was to add that she was also the Deputy Director's girlfriend too. She needed to prove herself worthy of her position, even if she fully understood the privilege that she was born into that gave her these opportunities in the first place.

"Well there you go," Roz opened her arms out, palms up, in a told-you-so gesture, "No excuse. Not an astronaut."

"She might have an excuse."

"Really?" she cocked her head, obviously not buying it.

She sighed, "maybe." Wanting so badly for there to be a legitimate reason, but not knowing what it could be.

"You don't deserve to be treated like this."

"I agree with Roz on this one," Jason added to her statement.

"Things aren't that simple," Hope thought back to when Maria went undercover and couldn't contact her. But then again, Hope had known that Maria was on a mission under Fury along with a number of other agents, including Steve and Natasha. So the chances of her suddenly going covert while both leading personnel and acting as a backup S.H.I.E.L.D. database was very slim. Even when she asked her mother about her, who was still a consultant on the mission, she told her that the last she heard; Maria was on the ground hunting down intel, and from what she could gather, was in contact with headquarters.

Roz looked to her, cocking her head to the side, as she asked in all earnest, "If your roles were reversed, would you ignore her like this?"

Hope thought on how her own go-to defence mechanisms was ironically to isolate herself just like this; she'd literally done this exact same thing to Scott that past month. And yet, she couldn't imagine cutting Maria out like that. Maria was different. She was her confidant, her person no matter what. She would text Maria in the middle of a sub-saharan African snake pit, if she had to.

"No," she said with a heavy heart, "no, I wouldn't,"

"Just for the record," Jason spoke up with honesty in his voice, "if our roles were reversed, and I was your boyfriend, I would never ignore you like she is."

He caught her gaze, holding it for a moment before Roz nudged his arm with a smile, "did you just finally shoot your shot there, Strongbow?"

"I am not shooting anything. I'm just trying to be sincere," he calmly explained to the young woman.

"Anyway," Roz ripped her gaze off of the man before looking back to Hope. "Are you now ready to admit that we have a point?"

"Yeah," Hope grumbled, "You guys may have a point." She hated to say it, but she was having a hard time with Maria's radio silence. It was one thing for her to be busy and out of reach, but for her to ignore her was a whole other kettle of fish.

"Good news," Roz's eyes lit up, "if you guys crash and burn, you got handsome Strongbow here who seems very eager to step in," she said, clearly trying to get a rise out of the man.

"You sure have a way of exaggerating situations," he eyed her, though he always seemed to find her shit-disturbing ways to be enduring enough to let slide, this one included.

"Do I though?" She tipped her head to the side, biting down on a grin as she wagged her eyebrows up and down.

From behind her Hope heard a huff, followed by heavy footsteps; realising that Sharon had gotten up from her seat, two tables over from them, and was noisily passing by. Hope just caught sight of her, for a second, as she fell into her view while exiting the room; aggressively pushing through the doors to leave.

"Okay," Roz lowered her tone as she leaned closer into Hope, "Carter totally death glared the back of your head, just then" she said as if she didn't want any of the other personnel in the cafeteria to hear her.

"Mine?" Hope asked.

"Yes," Jason nodded. "I don't think she liked the way you bested her this morning."

"She shot me."

"Yeah," he explained, "and I believe you made her feel foolish for it since you were the decoy that she fell for." He then started to speculate out loud, "I also feel as if she doesn't enjoy being here. Like she was ordered to take this assignment against her will."

Roz took a sip of her water before saying, "I mean, she is a level seven agent. Seems a little excessive for her to be here." She then paused for a moment before contemplating, "It almost makes me wonder if she's filling in the position, like maybe something happened to the regular guy." Hope instantly thought on the possibility that they could have been lost or injured during the A.I.M. attacks.

"What do you mean byshe's a level seven agent?" Jason inquired.

"Oh, ah," Roz straightened up in her seat before explaining, "so, all agents go through promotions. I graduated from the academy at level two, but most graduate at level one."

"Yiiyah," Jason smirked at her.

"What does that mean?" Roz asked.

"It's kind of like a nerd or a try-hard."

"A brilliant overachiever?" She pressed, like she wanted to hear that exact wording as a possible translation.

"Sure," he shrugged.

Her face split into a grin. "That's true, I am all of these things," she beamed proudly. "Anyway," she fell back into her explanation, "after farm training, you guys should be level twos as well. All combat field agents are a two, minimum."

"So seven must be high then," Jason deducted before biting down on an apple.

"Very. Pretty much all the top agents are sevens." She then began listing off a few examples, "Carter, Romanoff, May, Morse."

"What about Coulson?" Jason interjected after swallowing his bite. "He's the agent I've worked with in the past, when we did joint agency projects."

"He's an eight, he's the only one," Roz briefly looked over to Hope, like she was making sure that she was following the conversation too, which she was. "See there's only one person for level eight, nine, and ten."

"I'm assuming Director Fury would be ten," said Jason.

"Yup, and Commander Hill is nine." Roz's mention of Maria made Hope take in a sharp inhale. She'd just gotten her mind, and ironically, the conversation, off of the woman only for her to be mentioned again. But this time, by name.

Jason scrunched his face as he said, "I don't know him."

"Her," Roz corrected him before letting her head fall back as she sighed, "Oh god, Hill is like my idol." She then looked back to him as she continued, "I've never met her, but I did a paper on her S.H.I.E.L.D. career in the academy." Now Hope's interest was truly peaked as she listened intently. "She was recruited straight out of the Marines, did a compressed three month training program, where she got a perfect score on her tactical exam --which has only ever been done twice in S.H.I.E.L.D. history--. She still holds the marksmanship record under three categories at the academy's shooting range, to this day." Now Hope couldn't help but bite down on a smile. "She proved herself so capable that within six years, she climbed the ranks and was promoted to Deputy Director. Oh!" Roz then bounced excitedly in her seat, "and the title Commander was created specifically for her. When the helicarriers became a fleet, they needed her to take charge of it, so she was just dubbed with a completely new title for the position."

"Wow, she does sound impressive," Jason nodded in awe, as Hope was filled to the brim with pride for having the most amazing woman as her girlfriend.

"Yeah," Roz nodded, "And this is just the stuff that isn't classified." She then looked over to Hope as the realisation dawned on her. "Wait, you've been hanging out with the Avengers for a little while now," she casually pointed at her. "Have you met Commander Hill?"

"Ahh," Hope, now suddenly feeling very awkward, said, "yeah," as nonchalantly as possible.

"Really?" Her eyes lit up, "What's she like? I've heard she's super stoic and a major hard ass."

"She is those things, yes," Hope said stiffly, not wanting to continue on with Roz's line of questioning. "You know what?" Hope quickly followed up with, "I'm gunna head to the gym early." She quickly stood up, grabbing her phone and tray. "I'll see you guys in a bit."

"Okay," Roz gave her an odd look. "I mean, I thought I was the yiiyah, but you're even worse. Can't even take a full lunch break."

"Guilty," she forced a smile before heading out.

* * *

Shortly, when Hope arrived at the gym, she found Sharon punching away at the heavy bag. The activity that she had wanted to do.

The woman looked to her, where she gave her a once over. "Spar with me," she said, more like an order than a request; eyeing her like she was prey, as she aggressively tore her gloves' velcro fasteners loose with her teeth. She then pulled them off before tossing them to the ground.

Hope nodded, ready to finally punch the woman who had kept giving her grief, as she threw her gym bag and water bottle to the side; walking onto the mat and right up to her. Hope wasted no time as she threw a punch right at her face, where Sharon was quick to dodge it. "You know," Sharon stepped back, "sacrificing your team, including yourself, in order to have a successful mission," she started circling Hope, "isn't actually an achievement." Hope countered her movements; never exposing her back to the other woman. "Are you planning on doing that with the Avengers too? Should I start saying my goodbye to them now?"

Hope huffed, really on the edge at this point with her attitude. "What is your problem with me?" She finally snapped.

Sharon stopped in her tracks, cocking her head as she studied her, like she was not expecting her to so bluntly ask her that. "I don't trust you," Sharon griped right before she jumped her with an explosive left jab. Hope moved to block her, but didn't expect the kick that followed it; failing to stop it as Sharon's knee came in to impact her ribs. The other woman was admittedly very fast. Faster than Hope.

"Ah," she scrunched her body into herself as Sharon backed off. Hope then looked up to her, straightening out her body as she repeated her words but in a question, "you don't trust me?" Not understanding where this was coming from.

"Yeah, I don't trust you. I don't think you're truly committed," she moved towards Hope, circling her once again; ready to pounce.

"I think it's fair to say I've shown that I am." Sharon went for a right hook just as Hope stepped past her moving body, getting low, to deliver a punch to her kidneys from behind. In hignsight, it was a stupid move, because Sharon quickly pivoted and slid her arm under Hope and over her chest; grabbing a hold of her, only to knee her in the back as she fell to the mat.

"You've shown initiative, I'll give you that." Sharon backed away from her again as Hope dragged herself up; anger and frustration rising along with her. "You throw yourself fully into the moment, jumping in with both feet. But what about tomorrow?" They then started circling each other again, as Hope rolled her shoulders back; trying to realign her body. "What happens when things get tough? You gonna run away like you did before?" Hope suddenly realised what she was talking about, where Sharon then nodded at her. "Yeah, I read your file. You quit the Avengers Project after your first mission. Things got a little complicated and your instinct was to bolt," Sharon moved in for another attack, as she grunted, "There's no loyalty in that."

"I came back!" Hope defended herself both physically and conversationally.

"This time. But what if you change your mind again?" Another punch came, where Hope blocked it with her firsts up in front of her face.

"I'm not gunna!" Sharon made contact with her, kicking her in the side. "Ah!" Hope yelled; getting really tired of being the other woman's punching bag; hating how much better of a fighter she was than her.

"I know you believe that." Sharon stepped back, nodding her head as her words seemed genuine, "I do. You think just because it's new and exciting now, you'll stick around forever."

"I will stick around. I am committed," Hope pressed again.

"They all say that in the beginning, until they realise it's more than they bargained for. The lonely nights. The missed birthdays. Spending Christmases alone," Sharon started moving in again, as they repeated their circling dance, "The overall stress of having duty come between you two. Not just your duty, though, but her's too. It's mostly hers, actually." Hope took in a short breath, realising that Sharon wasn't talking about S.H.I.E.L.D. at all, but about Maria. "They all tell her they can handle it but they never can. They always leave her in the end," Sharon locked eyes with her, "and I think you're gunna leave her too."

"No," Hope swung a few times at her in frustration, where she was easily blocked.

"You're gunna get tired of waiting around for her and run to the next available guy, per your usual," Sharon grunted as she pushed Hope away.

"Per my what?" Hope asked in angered confusion.

"Johnathan McDougall. You shared a condo with him for a year while you were both undergrads," Sharon brought up her first serious relationship, one that started shortly after her two month secretive fling with her professor. "Collin Stanley, Pym Tech engineer. You guys lasted just shy of four years," She mentioned her late-baby's father. "Michael Dubois. He was your on-again-off-again boyfriend from France. Well, according to the tabloids, that is," Sharon then moved to Hope, delivering another punch kick combination, landing a strike at Hope's hip, making her stumble. "Oh, and let's not forget about Lang."

"What's your point? Other than proving your background checks are extremely invasive." Hope huffed, while she stepped back; grinding her teeth in resentment.

"You clearly have a preference. And I think once you've had your fun, you're going to leave her for a man. Specifically, one who's readily available." She said in a disingenuous tone, "Maybe even Strongbow. You two seem to be hitting it off so well already."

"No!" She lunged at her in fury; despising all of her accusations. She might have been frustrated with Maria's radio silence, but what Sharon was saying seemed so extreme, also, none of her goddamned business.

Hope's anger got the best of her, as she created an opening for Sharon, in her haste. The agent got low and kicked Hope's legs out from under her, sending her flying onto the mat; landing hard onto her back. The wind was knocked out of her as she took in a struggled gasp of air with a short coughing fit to follow.

Just as Hope regained control of herself, along with her breath, she rolled over to catch sight of one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s personnel entering the gym. "Ma'am," he addressed Sharon from the doorway.

Without a word, Sharon walked over to him, not even looking at Hope as she slowly picked herself up off the floor. The man muttered something rather briefly to Sharon before leaving.

Sharon sighed in annoyance, once they were alone yet again, before saying, "pack your bags. You're to go to Wakanda and report in with Fury for a mission." She shook her head, "guess they think Avengers can take gap days in the middle of their training." Hope didn't know how to respond, there was so much tension between them in that moment. "Well you better get your ass moving. Your transport is already waiting in front of the lodging house."

Hope, under any other circumstance, would have been beaming with excitement, but Sharon had put her into such a distressing headspace. So Hope awkwardly bent down to grab her stuff, before moving to leave the gym.

Just as she walked past the other woman, Sharon spoke up rather boldly, "You break her heart, I break your bones."

Hope stopped right as she was about to push open the door, and turned around to face her. She glared her down as she said through a locked jaw, "You don't know me," hating how someone could think so low of her, while assuming that she needed to be threatened in order for her to treat Maria right. With that, Hope aggressively shoved the doors open; exiting the gym.

She then hurriedly made her way back down to the cafeteria to say a quick goodbye to her new friends, before going to her room to pack her bags and leave.

By the time she loaded into the truck, that was taking her to the airfield, she had cooled down from her encounter with Sharon. Now she could finally get properly excited for her mission. Though, she admittedly was also nervous that she would probably be seeing Maria there too. She was anxious to learn what state she'd find her in. Hoping that she was alright and had a legitimate reason as to why Hope hadn't heard from her in so long. She really didn't know how she'd feel if she were to learn that Maria had been purposely ignoring her this whole time. So she prayed that that wasn't the case, as she allowed her transport to take her to her mission, and likely, to some answers too.

* * *

Maria crawled into her bunk on the Wakanda airship that she found herself on. She was flying to Birnin Zana along with T'Challa, Okoye, and Nakia; who she'd been working alongside with; monitoring the B.N.U.'s movements as they gathered to infiltrate Wakanda's borders. de Ruyter, now confirmed by Maria's team, to have both possession and control of the Impundulu, had been designated as an FPCON level threat. Together, S.H.I.E.L.D. and Wakanda, along with the support of the Pan-African Alliance, made the decision to allow the B.N.U. to advance on Wakanda, because their fractions have been so spread out over the continent, that this way they could hit the organisation all at once, on the soil of a country that was ready for it.

The sleeping quarters were tight on the aircraft with bunks two high, tucked in up against the back bulkhead. The woman had just enough space to sit up without bashing her head on the bed above her. She drew the bunk curtains closed, giving herself privacy before she took out her phone.

She brought up Hope's old messages, for probably the fortieth time during the past three weeks. It'd now been four messages in total, the last one was from a week ago, simply reading:

I don't know if you're getting these messages or not, but if you are, just remember that I love you.

She took a deep breath, staring at it, finding the message equally comforting as it was nerve racking. She was terrified that she was messing it all up. She felt so inept in every way, and it wasn't just a sense of unworthiness, it was that she also felt that she was constantly causing harm to those around her too. She was the incompetent girlfriend who always dropped the ball, like she was doing now. She pushed her partners away, sacrificing her relationships with them, for her job. A job where she was now sacrificing her own agents, and it was all because of her ineptitude. Everything was a mess. She, specifically, was the mess. Hope was going to break up with her, and rightfully so; Maria couldn't so much as type the words, "I love you too," back to her. She finally found the love of her life, and she was sabotaging it all in a missguided desire to protect Hope from her.

Maria threw her mobile down on the mattress, before digging out her tablet from her backpack that was next to her on her bed. As she grabbed it, her little sugar pumpkin rolled out along with it. She stared at it for a moment, before she decided to put it into her lap; still finding comfort in it even in her dissociative state. As the device was booting up, she reached behind her, grabbing her blue tuque from underneath her pillow; pulling it onto her head. She'd done that often; whenever she had some privacy, she would put her hat on. She rested her hand on her head, moving her fingers over the textured ridges of the garment; always feeling closer to Hope in the action.

Maria then opened up Sharon's latest report, ready to check in on how her agents-in-training were doing. As much as Maria was having a hard time herself, she was so proud to be constantly reading about how well Hope was doing in Pittsburgh. The knowledge that she was thriving was the only source of light she had those past days. If Maria was crashing and burning, Hope was at least reaching new highs, and that was the only thing that truly mattered in the end. That Hope was happy, safe, and flourishing.


	28. Twenty-Eighth

Hope stepped out of the self-piloted Wakandan aircraft in Birnin Zana, with her pack slumped over her shoulder. There, in the hanger, she was greeted by a familiar face.

"Mom?" Hope asked, only slightly surprised to see her. She had texted a few times with her over the past few weeks; knowing that she was still involved with the project at S.H.I.E.L.D.. Though neither of them could really disclose much of their own situations during their communications. So Hope didn't know where her mother's location had been over the past little while.

"Hi," she smiled warmly towards her daughter in welcome.

"You're here."

"I am," Janet leaned in to give her a quick hug before she started leading her out of the docking bay and into a long corridor.

"Is Maria here too?" Her thoughts never wandered far from her girlfriend; needing to know how she was.

"Yeah, she just got in late last night." They continued their walk down the hallway. "She's been all over the continent these past few weeks gathering intel."

"How is she?" She asked in all seriousness.

Hope could hear a bit of hesitation in her mother's voice as she responded, "I haven't really had a chance to talk with her."

"You've never needed to talk to someone to know how they are." Hope looked to her, suspecting that Janet had picked up on something merely by being in Maria's vicinity.

Janet continued to look forward as she soon stopped in front of a door, casually smiling, clearly ignoring her last statement. "They're waiting for you."

"Who?"

"Everyone," she waved her hand in front of a control panel, which opened a set of large doors, with two panels sliding inside the walls.

They walked into a grand war-room that had a sizable projection table in the centre of it, with --what looked like-- terrain of Wakanda and the surrounding area displayed on it. Around the table stood King T'Challa, Princess Shuri, Okoye, Steve, Tony, Clint, Natasha, Sam, Fury, and finally, Maria.

When Hope's eyes fell onto Maria she was disappointed, yet somehow, not surprised to see that she wasn't paying her any mind. Maria's eyes were darting back and forth between the projection table and the tablet screen that she held in her hand. With Okoye quietly telling her something; like they were consulting strategies with each other. Maria was clearly more focused on the mission than Hope's arrival.

"Kay, the Van Dynes are here. We'll start now." Fury cut through the chatter in the room, as Steve stepped over to Hope, giving her a nod of greeting before taking the spot next to her. Hope gave him a quick smile before again, looking back to Maria. This time Maria had her eyes on her, only to abruptly avert her gaze when Hope caught her looking. Hope sighed in annoyance towards her, only to try and push her annoyance away from Maria, to concentrate on the meeting.

Fury, who was standing on the other side of the table next to Maria, waited for the room to become silent before he started, "The B.N.U. are moving in to march on Wakanda's borders. Their E.T.A. is one hour from now."

T'Challa then took over, "the War Dogs are already there to meet them along with two of Commander Hill's field teams. The Dora Milaje are staying back to protect the city if they breach our defenses," he said calmly, with the authority of a king. "They are not terribly strong in numbers, but where their main threat lies, is with the Impundulu."

"According to our intel," Fury looked to Maria, as if she was the source of the information, "this bird can deliver lightning strikes that are compatible to missile damage." Hope gasped under her breath, surprised that it was that powerful. "It also has a nearly indestructible exterior," he added.

"Do we know if they're able to control it though?" Sam asked.

T'Challa acknowledged his query, "According to Nakia's intel, de Ruyter has been able to bond with the creature and seems to be able to manipulate it to some degree."

It was then Maria, who spoke up as she informed them, "We believe he's using an Enclave mind control device to do it."

"So we need to get our hands on that device," Fury stated.

"Yes," T'Challa agreed, "Nakia has a team already on the ground for that very task."

Fury took over again, "But we still have to be ready for the creature, in case her team can't get to the device before it gets here-- lightning storms and all."

Tony then jumped in, "Which is where our bird cage comes in."

"Yes," Shuri took over with excitement, "it is essentially one big force field dome." They were all directed to the holographic table that zoomed into a specific spot on the map, just outside of where they were located now. There was a giant metal arch, about two stories in radius, set up in the middle of a field.

"So we lure the giant lightning bird inside of it," Tony pointed to their device.

"Like catching a Pokémon!" Shuri beamed, where Hope actually understood her reference. Cassie had shown her Pokémon Go; making Hope download it onto her phone so that they could play it together.

"And Maria will activate it from here," Tony pointed to the ground; signifying that it would be turned on remotely from command.

"But ah," Shuri scrunched her face in guilt, looking to Maria, "we didn't exactly have time to program a kill switch. So ah, once the shield is up, you cannot turn it off."

Tony nodded, "So we only have one shot at this."

"Great," Maria huffed in sarcasm.

Tony then said, "we should also mention that technically the shield is already on now. The field is just being contained by these disrupters." He pointed to where the mentioned blockers were on the structure.

"Disrupters, as in: two, super advanced, hunks of steel running down the ends of the arch," Shuri nodded, clearly being sarcastic about how cutting edge their rush job was. The bent beams simply followed the complete length of the metal structure, flanking it on either side, holding back the forcefield.

"Yeah, so while we're flying around, make sure not to --like-- crash into them," Tony said, addressing his words towards Sam, who was standing near Steve.

"Or worse, have the Impundulu hit it," Shuri nodded.

"Right, 'cause it'll prematurely activate the cage," Tony said more to Shuri, than the others. The man clearly liked and respected the girl, which made Hope realise that Tony was such a liar when he said that he didn't like children. Because he seemed to like them a whole lot better than the adults around him.

Hope then wondered out loud, "wouldn't it be a lot easier if I just shrunk the Impundulu?" Hoping that she could make the mission simpler.

"We thought of that," Janet said, "but I'm not so sure that'll work."

"Yeah," Tony interjected, "see the creature emits a constant electrical charge from its body, giving it a natural defence against something like your blaster."

"How many joules is it?" Hope asked; still wondering if she could shrink it. Knowing the specifications of her own tech better than anyone else, save her dad.

"I'd say around fifty."

"Yeah, no," Hope shook her head at his answer, "That won't work." The charge was much too high.

Steve then turned to her, "But we were hoping you could help Tony and Sam by drawing it into the cage."

"Sounds good to me," Hope smirked; already excited.

"It's like a bird of prey on steroids," Tony warned her, "it'll be able to see you even when you're bug-sized."

"Well, isn't that the point? I wouldn't be very good bait if I was undetectable, now would I?" She raised a brow at him where he only shrugged at her in response.

Steve then looked between Hope, Tony, and Sam as he said, "You three are really gonna have to rely on each other for safety while you're flying around up there."

"I'll take point," Tony raised his hand.

"I'd rather have Sam," Steve shook his head, "He's got military training."

Tony scoffed, "You sound just like Rhodey." He then looked about the room before saying, "Speaking of Rodes, where is he? Anyone heard from him? He still alive?"

Sam crossed his arms as he side eyed him. "You don't know where your own best friend is?"

"Is he my best friend? He stole my suit and made it all clunky and ugly. Also, he didn't even check in after my building leveled. H.Q. falls, and radio silence."

Natasha stated matter-of-factly, "He literally called you that day."

"No he…" Then it seemed to have dawned on the man, "oh wait, yes he did."

Steve sighed, "James is stationed in DC, busy with Congress. You know this. And back to the mission." He repeated again, "Sam's taking point."

"Have you forgotten about my Iron Legion?" Tony pointed at himself, "I have more experience taking command of armies in the air. More than a pararescue airman," he looked to Sam, "no offense."

"Well I'm kinda offended," Sam gawked.

"Your teammates aren't a bunch of programmable droids," Steve pointed out to him.

"I mean they're notnotprogrammable droids if they're taking orders," Tony said, "Isn't that kinda exactly what military soldiers are all about anyway?"

"Kay, now I'm getting more offended," Sam admitted.

"Van Dyne will take point," Fury cut through their childish banter.

"What?" Tony snapped his head to look at their C.O. in complete confusion.

"According to her latest evaluation she's…" Fury tuned to Maria as he asked, "what was it you told me Carter wrote?"

"She's quick on her feet, extremely resourceful, and most notably, a natural leader," Maria told him, which made Hope bite down on a smile. Not just because of Sharon's positive evaluation, but because Maria had read it too.

"Yes," Fury nodded before looking to Hope. "I also like that you got that shrink ray. Don't hesitate to use it on your teammates if they keep running their damn mouths."

Hope heard Steve chuckle from beside her before he said, "I feel good with this decision."

"Me too," Sam agreed.

"It's fine. Whatever," Tony huffed; slapping away at the air in front of him.

Steve then turned to Hope, "You up for it?" He asked in all seriousness, clearly needing her to feel comfortable with the leadership role.

Hope was admittedly a little nervous, but her excitement for the task far outweighed her anxieties. And besides, she was only in charge of two other people. It was really no different than when she took the lead with Jason and Roz. "Yeah," she nodded with a smile, "I think so."

"Good," Steve smiled back.

"And so it begins," Sam muttered just loud enough for Steve and Hope to hear. Referencing how Hope was well on her way to take over Steve's leadership position in the Avengers.

They then adjourned the meeting where Hope so desperately wanted to go to Maria but before she could, the other woman had escaped into another room. Hope knew that she didn't have much time before she had to get ready but she would have liked to --at the very least-- just say hi to her. She understood that she must have been busy but it still, admittedly, hurt that Maria didn't even so much as smile at Hope in acknowledgment.

* * *

Maria, tucked away in a conference room, was checking in on the position of her field teams. Looking at a mirror of the war-room table, projected onto the highly advanced tablet that Shuri had given her. Maria really didn't need to get an update on them, for that she had done it prior to the briefing. Also, her teams were reporting in with Fury for the duration of the mission, and not her. Her first priority was to catch the Impundulu and not to worry about the ground assaults.

"What are you doing?" Natasha entered the room.

"Prepping for the mission," Maria said matter-of-factly; not looking up from her screen.

"You are aware that your girlfriend is out there, right?" She pointed behind her with her thumb. "You know, the woman who is also in charge of your flight team." Maria knew that she was implying that she should go see her for both personal and professional reasons. But it really wasn't necessary to see her from a mission standpoint. The flight team would come up with a plan and let her know via their comms system. And if Maria felt like the plan needed to be changed or just slightly tweaked, she'd let them know.

"Yes, I'm aware. And she'll be prepping for her mission too, as you should be doing," she said in annoyance.

"You have time to go see her, even to just say h--"

"I'm busy," she cut her off, "And you're distracting me."

"You found the time in the middle of your super secret, double crossing mission to see her," Natasha walked over to her, leaning against the table that Maria was sitting at. "And now you're struggling to take two minutes to go to her when she's right outside?" She gestured towards the other room.

Maria knew what Natasha was doing and she didn't want to hear it. "Whatever it is you're trying to say, don't," she glared up at her, giving her a look of warning.

"Why? You don't want me pointing out that you're unfairly pulling away from her? Not only her but everyone else, including me," she crossed her arms while raising an eyebrow, showing her that she wasn't about to back down.

"We've got another terrorist organisation on our hands, one who has possession of this crazy mutant lightning creature from ancient times." Maria spewed out her justification, "It's really not that strange that I'm focusing all of my attention onto this assignment," she huffed in annoyance. Hating that she had to defend her actions to her friend.

Natasha then casually looked off into the distance as she dropped her hands to grab the table edge behind her. "You know what I'm reminded of here?" She asked. "That first year we met," she answered her own question. "We were so rigidly professional, scared we were going to screw up somehow, both painfully aware of Fury's judgments of us as we had to prove ourselves to him," she said as Maria was recalling back to those days. "You're acting like that now."

Maria, now angry with the accuracy of her words, grunted, "I thought I told you not to say it."

Natasha looked to her softly, "You don't have anything to--"

"Tasha!" Maria barked. Not mentally able to hear her truthful words.

Natasha threw her hands up as she surrendered to her wishes, "I'm done."

"There you are," Tony said while entering the room with Shuri behind him. "We need to show you the controls to turn on the bird cage," he directed his words at Maria

"I'm going to set you up in my lab." Shuri nodded, "The holographic system in there is even better than the one in the war-room. You'll be able to track your air team better on it."

"I'm coming," Maria stood up, glad that they were rescuing her from her conversation with Natasha; following them out, where she could feel her friend's gaze following her as she exited.

Tony only stayed a short while in the lab before he scurried off to join the others in the field. Shuri stayed with Maria, to make sure everything ran smoothly from a tech standpoint.

Just as Tony, Sam, and Hope were gathering up in the field, Janet walked into the lab, wanting to spectate. She never said it, but Maria knew that she wanted to observe her daughter on her mission. Which she could fully understand, and the woman was respectfully standing back and staying quiet; allowing Maria to concentrate on her task at hand.

Maria didn't pay much attention to Janet as she was conversing with her agents. Hope had just finished up the explanation of her plan, that they were all accepting to follow; putting their two cents in to it as well.

As soon as they felt confident in what they were supposed to do, the three agents got into position; barely having time to do so before Maria had eyes on the Impundulu, coming from Steve's bodycam. The soldier was on the ground at the border when he called it in; Maria only getting a brief visual of it as it soared past the lense towards the capital.

Maria quickly relayed its location to Sam, who started off to meet it in air. They were lucky that he wasn't terribly far away from where they'd predicted the creature to come in from.

"Okay, I've got eyes on it," Sam reported in, where Maria could see it too. From what Maria could make out from Sam's bodycam, the bird was completely black, save for its head and the tops of its wings which were white. There were also little sparks flying off of its wings as it flapped them and it did, indeed, look to be about the same size of a man, just as legend had it.

Sam flew towards it, banking in an ark right in front of the creature to get its attention; while simultaneously turning around so it would take chase. Which, to their luck, it did.

"Okay, Van Dyne, we're coming your way," Sam used his goggles, that were pinged to the beacon in Hopes suit, to find her.

Soon Falcon started adjusting his altitude to match Hope's, as he began to climb, when Hope came in, "stay low."

"What? But you're up--"

"I know, stay low. Trust me," she said.

"Roger."

Maria soon saw an image flash up onto the holographic screen, next to her agents bodycams, of Sam flying with the Impundulu quickly catching up to him, seen from an upwards angle. "They've hit the city limits," Shuri explained, "From now, until the cage, we'll have periodic coverage of them from the Birnin Zana's surveillance grid."

Maria nodded in understanding as she noted the distance between Sam and the creature. She then called him on the com, "Wilson, you have about twenty feet on it, and it's gaining on you fast."

"Yeah," he grunted, like he already knew he was running out of time.

The ground images kept flashing from one camera to another; showing various angles and perspectives of the action.

Suddenly, as the holographic image showed a wide shot of Sam and the Impundulu, overtop of a community of houses, Hope came into the picture. She showed up on the holographic display like she'd appeared out of nowhere. She had grown to her full size, free falling from high up, out of the sky. During her rapid descent, she was shooting past Sam and at the Impundulu, with both of her blasters. Like they had predicted, her shots were not changing the size of the creature but they were certainly angering it; causing it to change targets, as it was now focused onto Hope.

As the Impundulu set its heading to the woman, who was dropping out of the sky off in the distance from it, Hope then suddenly shrunk back down, right before hitting ground. She turned on a dime (Maria could tell by watching Hope's bodycam), making haste towards Tony, who was closer towards the cage.

When Hope had fired on the Impundulu, there was about a soccer field's length between her and Sam; giving her a nice lead. The down side, however, was that the Impundulu was now very angry at her for shooting it. Which resulted in the creature, not only spitting larger sparks from its body, but it was calling forth black clouds overtop of it and the surrounding area. With lightning starting to crackle in the sky.

Hope was too small to be picked up by the Birnin Zana's security cameras but by studying her bodycam, and watching the Impundulu by the pinned-together images from the city, Maria could tell that the Impundulu was quickly gaining on her; quicker than they'd expected.

Maria suddenly felt her palms sweating and her heart racing; when a lightning bolt came flashing into view on Hope's body cam. It rushed past her face over her shoulder; luckily not hitting her. But the creature was close, too close, and it was now shooting at her, trying to take revenge.

"Stark!" Maria yelled at Tony out of fear; surprising even herself.

"Yeah, I see them," Tony responded. "Well, technically, I only see the Impundulu," he corrected his wording since Hope was too small to be seen from such a far distance.

"Get its attention. Now!" Maria spat.

"Wait, I can get it closer!" Hope came in, where Maria could see her dodging around large satellite dishes, belonging to the Wakandan Space Program, with the Impundulu weaving in right behind her. "Tony, hold your position."

Maria huffed under her breath (not into the comms), "dammit, Hope." As she was not happy with the woman and the way she was putting herself at risk.

Before Maria could tell Tony to disregard Hope's words, Hope had grown to size, almost directly in front of the Impundulu; making herself a perfect target. The action made Maria gasp in terror. But before the creature could collide into her, or electrocute her with lightning, Hope shot a hoverbike that was stationary on the ground. The vehicle swiftly grew at the rate that Hope had shrunken back down. The bike reached the high of a house where the creature crashed straight into it, falling to the ground, as Hope flew off.

The Impundulu was quick to stand up, shake itself off with a screech so loud that it had broken the yoke in Hope's mic so that even Maria could hear it. Before the bird took flight once again, a lightning bolt crashed down to hit it from the sky; like it summoned it for energy. The Impundulu took off like a bullet but by then Hope was nearly at Tony, who was waiting for her up in the air.

Tony then started shooting at the creature, but with a bombardment of bullets. They all clanged off of its invulnerable, mutated feathers. The Impundulu's electrical storm grew worse as lightning was striking down to the Earth; hitting everything from satellites, to trees, to buildings while it set its sights on Tony. Now disinterested in Hope as it flew over her to get to its new target.

The Iron Man suit was the fastest of all of theirs, with the best defence against electrical hits, hence why Hope wanted Tony to run the last leg.

It didn't take long until Tony fell into view of the camera that was at the birdcage, where Maria reached for the button to engage the forcefield. She kept her hand hovering above it.

Tony beelined it to the cage, flying right under the arch, however, because the Iron Man suit was so fast, there was too much distance between him and the Impundulu, that the creature didn't follow him underneath the structure, but flew over top of it instead.

"It didn't follow you into position," Maria told Tony. "Also, you're passing the target too fast. I don't think I'll be able to trap it at those speeds," she added as Tony made a loop to try for another pass, with the Impundulu still on his tail.

"Copy that," he said while slowing down and lining up with the target area.

He went as slowly as he could but before he got to the target, the Impundulu hit him with a lightning bolt, which seemed to have temporarily disrupted his suit as Tony went crashing down, right on top of the target zone.

"Stark!" Maria yelled into the comms.

But the man didn't answer, instead he sat up just as the Impundulu came screeching right at him. Tony took advantage of the situation and raised his hand, sending a repulsor blast straight inside of the creatures open beak; making it crash right into him.

"Tony!" Maria came again, but this time calling him by his first name.

After the dust settled, Maria could see that the Impundulu had landed perfectly inside of the cage, the only problem was, Tony was wedged underneath it, and the bird seemed injured and, absolutely, livid. It was calling a huge black spiral in the sky, as lighting bolts were crashing down all around them, with a steady stream of electricity running up from the Impundulu and into the clouds. A stray bolt even hit the building they were in; shaking the foundation beneath their feet.

There was a whole city of people outside, with a storm brewing that could take out thousands. They were now in a dire situation.

"Activate the cage!" Tony cut through the comms.

Maria released the breath that she'd been holding, relieved that he was still alive. His suit must have been absorbing --god only knows-- how many volts of power as he laid there against the sparking Impundulu. She shook her head as her heart began to pound in her chest before replying in a shaky voice, "no. You have to get out." She couldn't trap Tony in there, he'd certainly die.

"I can't," he grunted; trying to get out from underneath the bird that was still in a state of shock, sprawled out over his lower body. "My suit is locking up, I can barely move, and this thing is about to put a crater in the middle of the city. You have to contain it!"

Maria's pounding heart suddenly flooded all her other senses. It was like her heartbeat was no longer coming from her chest, but was inside of her ears; echoing through her skull.

"Maria!" She heard his voice come again, but this time it came across like an echo, like she was hearing it from underwater. "You have to do it!"

Maria looked away from the holographic image of Tony pinned beneath their ticking-time-bomb, to set her sights on her hand, still hovering over the button. But she couldn't do it. She couldn't be responsible for another death. He had to get out. He had to. Her heart rate increased as she started gasping for air. Why was there no air? She was suffocating.

"Maria?" She heard again, but it may have been Janet that time, she couldn't tell. The only things she could process was the pain in her chest, which was crushing her, and the pain in her side, from the lack of air in her lungs.

Crash!Came another lighting strike to the building, which somewhat snapped Maria out of it, if only to look back up; giving her the slightest bit of coherence as she noticed Tony struggling to stretch his arm out, ever so slightly, where he then repulsor blasted the iron beam that was holding back the one side of the birdcage; activating half of the containment as Tony collapsed onto his back, like he'd passed out. His suit must have reached its max; unable to absorb any more electricity.

Then, like a godsend, Hope immediately popped into view. She landed on the ground in front of Tony and the Impundulu only to shoot Tony; shrinking him in size before Hope herself miniaturised too. Next thing Maria saw was Hope growing back to size a few metres outside of the containment for a mere second as she blasted the second iron barrier; activating the other half of the birdcage as the beam miniaturised; trapping the Impundulu inside, before she shrank back down.

"I've got Tony," she reported, "Where is Medical?" She asked for directions.

"Princess Shuri," Janet calmly addressed the girl, "Won't you please tell Hope where to go?"

"Ah, yes, Mrs. Van Dyne," the girl said awkwardly right before Maria hurriedly moved for the exit, relieved that Shuri was about to take over so that she could dismiss herself.

She couldn't breathe, and she was panicking on Tony's behalf. Was he dead? Was Pepper going to lose the love of her life? This was Tony and Shuri's cage, along with Hope's plan, but Maria let it happen. She was in command. If Tony was dead, it would be all her fault. Just like the others.

Maria's feet carried her to the infirmary as quickly as they could take her. Luckily, she'd been there before and it wasn't far from her. The elevator outside the lab took her right to it.

She stumbled inside of the lift, as she leaned up against the wall, trying her best to get air into her lungs before she fell over.

* * *

Conveniently, the medical bay was just inside of the building that the birdcage was setup in front of. Hope flew Tony right to the doorway of the building, through clear blue skies, that showed up almost instantaneously after the Impundulu was contained and cut off from the atmosphere.

When she grew them both to size and opened the doors, there were two medical professionals running up the hallway to meet them. Shuri had told her that she had already alerted the infirmary that they were coming. They quickly put Tony onto a hover-stretcher and pushed him down the hallway towards an emergency response room. "Do you know how to open his suit?" One of them asked Hope.

She shook her head, adrenaline still pumping through her veins, as she answered, "no," now in a bit of a panic. If they couldn't get to his body, they couldn't help him.

As they were about to push him into a room they heard someone yell, "stop!"

Hope looked over to see Maria running over as she grabbed Tony's arm. She slid a panel at his armoured wrist before pushing into the spot that was now exposed. Suddenly, the Iron Man suit started to dismantle; opening up his helmet, front torso, and his legs. Everything was retracted into the back of his suit, giving the doctors access to his body.

Once Tony was pushed into the room, with more people awaiting him inside of it, the medical team lifted him off of the stretcher, out of his suit, and onto the bed. Hope had watched them through the large viewing window, with Maria falling in place next to her.

Hope didn't know what half of the medical devices were that they were using until she could see the results of them. The doctor had two floating blue disks hovering just underneath her palms, where she held them over Tony's chest. After a moment, the device projected something in the air in front of it. Hope was sure it had said something, but it was too brief before the doctor calmly said to her team, "he's v-tach. Kucace," where they all stepped back, clearing Tony's body with their hands up, as the holographic display disappeared. Then suddenly the blue discs burst to a brighter hue which resulted in Tony's chest jolting up; making Hope realise that the device was a defibrillator.

The doctor kept the instrument over his body, where it then made a chiming noise as it displayed a heartbeat line that was pulsing in the air, with a number displayed beside it. The digits kept changing before it settled on the number, ninety-six; which was a healthy heart rate.

Hope sighed in relief, as she turned to Maria, "It looks like his suit protected him," knowing that his heart never would have survived the Impundulu without his armour. But when she fixed her eyes onto Maria, she was shocked to see that the woman did not look relieved. She was white-knuckling the edge of the window sill, her face was pale, her eyes were fixed on the sight in the other room, and Hope could see her tense body shaking.

Hope was about to reach over to gently place her hand on Maria's arm, but before she had a chance, they heard Fury trudging down the hallway. "What's his status?" Their director asked.

Hope looked back into the room, seeing the medical team casually attending to Tony before she turned to Fury. "He's stable," she answered him, seeing that Maria wasn't about to. The Commander looked so lost.

"Good," he nodded before he gave her the smallest smirk, "glad you took me seriously about shooting your teammates." He then took a moment to look through the window at Tony. "You might as well get back out there," he ripped his eyes away from his fallen Avenger to look back to Hope, "and report in with Rogers."

Hope nodded in understanding just as Shuri came running down the hallway, with Janet walking quickly behind her. "Ah, Problem. Big problem," Shuri halted in front of the three with wide eyes. "The forcefield kinda just conked out."

"What!" Maria whipped her body around to look at the girl. The commander, clearly in an unusually high state of panic.

"Yeah," she guiltily rubbed the back off her neck, "the Impundulu got out."

"Wha--," Maria gawked in almost a cry.

"From what I can see through the cameras, I think when Mr. Stark shot the barrier to activate the field, he nicked a power cable," the teen explained.

Maria asked in a panic, "Do we have eyes on it now?"

"No. But it took off to the South."

"We have to find it," Maria practically stumbled as she pushed past the small crowd in front of her, cantering down the hallway, rounding the nearest corner.

"Wait, Maria!" Hope called out; concerned over her emotional well-being. She'd never seen Maria like this. Maria was calm and stoic. She didn't panic. She never lost control. Hope ran to catch up to her as she called out again, "Maria!"

"Not now, Hope!" Maria brought her hand up to her forehead, pushing hair away from her face in agitation.

Hope didn't heed her words as she grabbed Maria's arm, stopping her in her tracts. "Talk to me," she gently demanded. "Are you okay?"

"Am I okay?" Maria scoffed in anger. "Do you know where the Impundulu is?" She spat at her.

Hope took in a sharp breath before she timidly answered, "No."

"Then it doesn't matter how I am. It's gone," she ripped her arm free of Hope's hold, "and you might as well follow suit and leave too." Her words came harshly, with her eyes brimming, before she turned and stomped away.

Maria's words came like a knife to the heart as Hope's eyes instantly welled up. Hope stiffened her bottom lip; doing everything to hold herself together.

Hope had never seen Maria like that. Sure, she'd witnessed the other woman down in emotionally vulnerable states before, but even when she let tears escape, there was still a semblance of control. However, in this moment now, Hope didn't sense any control. Maria wasn't just fraying at the edges, she was unraveling. Her rationale, now gone with fear at the helm.

* * *

Hope spent a lengthy stint in the field, after she took Tony to Medical, helping the Wakandans round up members of the B.N.U.. The ground mission was a lot more successful than their air one. Though, where they'd failed to capture the Impundulu, the ground mission, too, failed in capturing de Ruyder along with the Enclave mind control device.

Finally, after a few tiring hours, Hope was relieved to retire inside. She was shown a room and given food but despite how exhausted and jetlagged she felt, she forced herself to take a walk instead of taking a nap; wanting to find her mother. Needing to debrief with her. Not about the mission, but about her confused emotions.

It didn't take long for Hope to find her in the war-room. When Janet caught her eye, she nodded, like she was reading her mind. She then gestured for her to meet her in a small side room so they could talk privately; away from the modest gathering of people who were in the main room.

"Hey, Jellybean," Janet smiled at her just as she walked into the room. "You did so well out there today," she gave her a hug, where Hope couldn't refrain from hugging her back; needing the warmth of her love.

Hope pulled out of the embrace as she sighed, "I really didn't." She shook her head, " It was a total disaster." She then acknowledged that it wasn't all horrible out in the field, they did capture a whole slew of B.N.U. members after all, "well, it was for us with the Impundulu, that is." She dropped her head, taking blame for the failure, "and I was the one put in charge of that part of the mission," she looked to her, "so there's that."

"Your plan was good," Janet reassured her. "Sometimes things just happen. Missions are unpredictable. We can't see and control every variable." She then squeezed her shoulder with a knowing smile, "that report was right. You are quick on your feet, and Tony owes his life to that."

Hope hesitantly nodded, seeing her mom's point. She then looked into the older woman's eyes, scared to ask, but needing to understand. "What happened in controls?" She continued to study her mom's face as she asked, her voice slightly cracking, "she's not alright, is she?"

Janet looked at her with a soft expression, and what looked like guilt in her eyes. "She's different now."

"What do you mean?"

Janet broke eye contact with her as she shook her head, "I don't know if I should say."

"Oh, now you're definitely going to have to say," Hope practicality demanded.

"Ah," Janet started, only to sigh. She took a moment before continuing. "The whole particle frequencies thing…." Suddenly Hope could feel her heart pounding; terrified of what her mother was going to say, but already knowing deep down what it was. "I think my hypothesis about them may have not been completely correct."

Hope took a breath, trying not to cry as she responded, "she's different. Different than me."

"Just a little," Janet showed a small space between her thumb and index finger, where Hope nodded, holding back tears. "Maybe soulmates aren't actually a thing, or rather, maybe Plato's understanding of them was wrong," Janet hypothesised. "We don't just magically have this perfect match that we were initially separated from in another life. It's probably more like: we grow and change and sometimes we find people who are on the same page as us." She paused briefly before concluding, "but pages turn."

"What are you saying, that Maria's moving away from me?" She could now feel a tear trying to escape, forcing herself to dab her eyes with her finger tips.

"Oh, Jellybean, I don't completely understand this foreign world that I now perceive," she said with great compassion, "I don't want to be putting the wrong ideas into your head."

In that moment Hope truly understood Sharon's words of warning. Obstacles were indeed put into place to make it harder to be with Maria. And not just physically, but emotionally too, as this very situation dictated. And Maria had always known this, as she had seemed constantly rattled by the thought that she wouldn't be enough for Hope. And now, Hope's thoughts pushed back to when Maria had asked her, if she could keep her forever, and wondered if she had truly believed her when Hope had answered, yes. Sharon told her that they all left her. Her annoying instructor was actually advocating in Maria's silence. Giving Maria's fears a voice. Fears that she was now so obviously trying to hide from Hope. That she thought that she'd be too much for her. But Hope's love for her had made it impossible for her to ever let those obstacles stop her. She would jump the hurdles and crawl under the barbed wire. "I'm not abandoning her, Mom," she stated stubbornly.

"As you shouldn't!" Her mother gasped, like she was appalled that her daughter had taken her words to mean such. Janet then took a calming breath before saying, "I suspect you two need to reconnect. Find your rhythm again. Possibly even a new rhythm." she smiled encouragingly, "Maybe she'll flip her page back to yours, or you'll flip yours forwards to hers. And maybe that's the truest answer here." Hope cocked her head to the side as she tried to understand her words. "It's not all about finding your match, but it's about creating and maintaining one. I think you guys were lucky. You found each other at the right time, at the right stages in your lives. But that doesn't mean you still don't have to fight to make sure you don't grow apart." Hope nodded; accepting her mother's wisdom. Janet's face then split into a beautiful smile as she said in all earnest, "I believe in you two."

Hope couldn't help but smile in return as she was just so grateful for her mom.

"Mrs. Van Dyne," Queen mother, Ramonda, entered the threshold of the room, where the two turned to face her.

"Your Majesty," Janet bowed her head and crossed her arms in front of her chest in greeting, where Ramonda returned the gesture.

"I am extending an invitation for you to join The Pan-African Alliance debriefing. It is to commence shortly, and I would be delighted if you would escort me to the meeting."

Janet comfortably smiled, "It would be an honour." Which made Hope wonder if the two had become close over the time that her mother had been in Wakanda.

Janet then turned back to Hope, giving her a quick kiss on her cheek, and a supportive pat on the arm, before walking out with the queen mother.

"I wish my daughter would let me kiss her like that without squirming away from me," Hope heard Ramonda's voice trail off with Janet chuckling in response, as they disappeared out into the war-room and away to their meeting, in some other location that Hope was not familiar with.

Hope let a small smirk slip in response to the ladies' interaction but in reality, was really much too concerned with her own heartache to find the situation as endearing as she normally would have.

Hope then exited the small room herself, looking about the space to find Natasha conversing with Clint and Okoye on the far end of the room. Hope barely had her sights on her before the spy turned to her; like she could feel her gaze.

Hope then mouthed to her, "do you know where Maria is?" Hoping that she would understand her question.

Natasha then turned to Clint, taking the tablet out of his hand before she scribbled something down on it with a stylus, that she too ripped out of his other hand. She then held it up for Hope. It read:Bashenga Centre rm 805.

Hope nodded, knowing the building already, since that's where she'd just come from. She was shown a room there on the seventh floor, which seemed to be one down from Maria's. She then mouthed, "Thank you," to the woman.

Natasha then mouthed back, "good luck," like she'd fully known that whatever was about to happen when she arrived there, it wasn't going to be easy.

Hope smiled tightly towards her before wandering off in search of Maria. Anxiety bubbling in her belly, uncertainty driving her nerves; scared as to what she was about to come head to head with.

* * *

Maria was sitting on the floor, leaning up against her bed. Her laptop and S.H.I.E.L.D. tablet were laying on the floor in front of her, with the Wakandan tablet in her hand. She had completely locked herself away in her room, trying to figure out where de Ruyder and the Impundulu went off to. She was searching social media, African databases, and S.H.I.E.L.D. satellite imaging, coming up empty.

Maria was suddenly pulled out of her work as a knock came at her door. She quickly called out, "Come in," hoping it was Nakia who was there to tell her they found something.

But when the door opened, she was agitated to see Hope timidly walk in. Maria's chest instantly tightened as she abruptly looked back down to her tablet in hand. She didn't know what to say, and now she was mad at herself for so eagerly telling the other woman to enter her room.

Maria heard the door shut. But Hope didn't walk forwards or say anything. She simply stood at the entrance. Maybe she was waiting for Maria to say something, maybe she was studying Maria, or maybe she was doing both.

After a moment she heard Hope sigh heavily, almost in a grunt, before making her way over to her. "Look, I know you're avoiding me," Hope stated rather boldly, "and I get that you're going through some shit. But I need you to understand that I'm here and I'm not going anywhere, whether you like it or not," her words came as a threat, which made Maria look up at her, as she was now standing right in front of her. "So you can try pushing me away all you want, but no receipt, no return, remember?" She folded her arms over her chest. "So," she moved to drop her weight against the tall bedpost next to Maria, facing the same direction as her, "I'm going to stand right here." She threw down her arm to point to the floor at her feet, "and while I'm here, you don't have to talk to me, you don't have to look at me --hell!-- you can hate me. But I'm not budging..." she huffed before she grumbled in continuation, "...as I lean up against this uncomfortable post," Maria saw her squirming from the corner of her eye, "staring off into space 'cause I stupidly didn't bring a book or anything with me to wait out your stubbornness with," she muttered the last part under her breath.

Maria was suddenly very aware of her breathing as it became choppy and her eyes involuntarily started to well up. She was panicking; needing Hope more than ever in that moment. Her obstinacy had pushed Maria right over the edge.

Maria dropped her tablet to the ground, not caring in the slightest if she'd damaged it in the process, as she rose to her knees. She quickly pivoted her body, positioning herself to face Hope where she desperately threw her arms around her waist, sliding them between her lower back and the bedpost, as she pressed her face into her stomach. She squeezed her so tightly as tears started rolling down her cheeks while quickly being absorbed by Hope's shirt.

Soon she felt Hope exhale before her hands fell onto her body, as she gently cupped Maria's head. After a brief moment, Hope slid Maria's elastic out of her hair, before she started to gently comb her fingers through her locks in a soothing manner.

God, Hope's presence felt like an equaliser. Maria's heart rate steadied, the weight in her chest lightened, and her jaw unclenched, as she broke down completely to weep into their embrace, allowing Hope to pull her back to a sense of self.

"I'm sorry," Maria mumbled in a small voice, through her gentle sobs; hating herself for the way she'd been acting towards her, and more egregiously, for the words that she'd said to her. She was both embarrassed and distraught by her failure, and that created a deadly brew of toxic emotions that brought about her awful behaviour, and intensified her overall fear that Hope was going to give up on her. Which made her act irrationally by pushing her away. Trying to salvage what she could of her feelings for when Hope would inevitably break-up with her. Since, this was right about the time in all her relationships that they would leave her. And this time, she wasn't just absent --per her usual-- she was emotionally distraught on top of it. But Hope wasn't leaving. She made that very clear, which made Maria's sobbing intensify; truly letting herself go, in the safety of Hope's presence.

Maria had always been punished by her father for breaking down and crying like this. He would tell her that if she was weak, he'd give her something to really cry about. Something like his habit of throwing her against a wall. So, because of her upbringing, Maria did her utmost to stifle her tears --or in the very least-- conceal them from other's eyes. Until Hope, that was.

Hope pulled Maria's arms away from her as she too, dropped to her knees, only to wrap Maria into a hug. She rubbed her back with one hand while sinking her fingers back into Maria's hair with the other. Maria clung to her as she buried her face into Hope's neck while the woman lovingly shushed her. "It's okay, baby," she mumbled into her hair, "it's okay," she continued to rub her back in circular motions as Maria started to calm down.

"I couldn't be responsible for another one," Maria sniffled into Hope's collar; thinking on how she wasn't able to activate the forcefield with Tony still inside of it. "But now there are even more at risk," she hated herself for allowing the Impundulu to escape. It was now a danger to --god only knows-- how many more people. "I messed up." She then deducted, "Iammessed up."

Hope pressed a lingering kiss to the side of Maria's scalp before speaking softly into her hair, "not trapping Tony inside his own personal tomb, is not what I'd call being 'messed up'."

But before Maria could counter her statement, wanting to bring up how she blundered the mission, there was a knock at the door. Maria's body instantly stiffened as she pulled her head away from Hope's shoulder. Maria quickly cleared her throat while she wiped her eyes; attempting to pull herself together. She turned her head to face the door, before she asked, "Who is it?" Trying to keep her voice as steady as possible.

"It is I, Ayo," Maria recognised the Dora Milaje as she called through the closed door, "Director Fury wishes to speak with you, Commander."

A sense of dread entered Maria's being, as she stiffly nodded her head, replying, "I'll be right there." Fury wasn't Nakia. He was most likely not about to tell her that they'd found their person of interest. He witnessed her panicked episode, he knew that she didn't activate the cage, he was probably wanting to see her to reprimand her in some way.

Maria then looked back to Hope, who had a soft expression on her face. The woman then unwrapped her arms from around Maria's back to rub her thumbs over her wet cheeks, on the spots that Maria had missed. She then wordlessly fixed Maria's hair; putting it once again into a ponytail as she impressively tied it back from her spot in front of her.

Hope then smiled at her as she said with encouragement, "you got this."

Maria didn't feel up to snuff in the slightest, yet, she knew that she could get through whatever consequences were before her with Hope supporting her. Maria then softly cupped Hope's face while she leaned in, giving her a gentle kiss before muttering softly into her lips, "I love you so much."

"That's good," Hope pulled away to look at her; taking Maria's hands into her own, "it makes my inability to leave you alone a lot more pleasant for you that way," Hope smirked innocently, where Maria had to hold back a grin; fighting off her body's urge to tear up once again. Maria was deeply moved by Hope's display of commitment, a commitment that was only now becoming less foreign to her.

Maria took in a deep breath before looking back at the door. She then slowly exhaled before she rose to her feet, still staring at the threshold; knowing that if she were to look back to Hope, she would lack the willpower to leave.

Hope squeezed Maria's hands before letting go of them, allowing her to walk away. Just as she reached the door she looked back finding Hope now sitting on her heels. She gave her a nod with a soft smile, where Maria in return, nodded back to her before she exited into the hallway.

"Commander," Ayo bowed her head in respect while crossing her arms at her chest. "The Director is awaiting your arrival in the small business arena," the woman referenced the conference room that T'Challa had given to Fury to set up shop in.

"Thank you," Maria simply said before awkwardly crossing her arms back at her, then speedily walking past her, hoping to god that the Dora Milaje didn't notice that she'd just previously been crying.

When she entered into one of the multi-directional elevators, she was shocked at the sight in front of her. "Thor?" She said in surprise, seeing the Asgardian standing before her. "What are-- When did you get here?"

"Just now. Fury sent for me. He said you are dealing with a lightning bird, and since --you know-- I am the god of thunder," He extended his hands out like he were presenting himself in a ta-da fashion, grinning, "here I am."

The man's presence churned Maria's stomach. It wasn't that she wasn't grateful that he was there. On the contrary, it made perfect sense that he was called in. It was that he had to be called in in the first place that made her uncomfortable. Their mission was supposed to be simple. That's the very reason why only the first-string Avengers were called in. The ones who were also agents and always on call. They weren't even going to bother bringing in Hope. It was Fury, however, that requested her presence. Why? Maria was still not completely sure, but she was definitely grateful that she was there.

"Are you going to see Fury now?" Maria asked as she stepped into the elevator. She then pressed the digital screen on the wall to activate the location that she desired, only then noticing that the war-room was selected, which was not where Fury was located.

"Captain Rogers, actually." Maria nodded in understanding as the door closed in front of them. She then tried to discreetly take a few calming breaths, nervous for her appearance in front of Fury. What was he going to say to her? What was she going to say to him?

"So," Thor ripped Maria out of her worried thoughts, "How are things going with you and your Hope Wasp?" He asked with a smile and shining eyes of excited intrigue. The man had always had an interest in her love life. He once told her that he found the love between two women to be the purest form he'd ever witnessed in all of his years. And he desperately wanted her to experience, firsthand, what he'd only ever seen.

The elevator stopped at her location with the doors opening almost instantaneously (Wakandan technology was clearly more efficient than the rest of the world). Maria then smirked to herself, looking out over the floor, barely taking a second to mull over Thor's question; already knowing how things were between Hope and herself. For the first time, truly believing that she had a future with her. "I'm going to marry that woman," she said matter-of-factly, right before she walked out of the transport and towards the room that Fury was awaiting for her inside of.

When she approached Fury's temporary office, she stopped at his door, where she nervously swallowed before knocking.

"Enter," came the Director's voice from the other side.

Taking a deep breath, Maria stepped inside. Fury was standing behind his large desk, head down, looking over an open file laying on the desktop.

He didn't look up to her, nor did he say a word. He just continued to read while Maria stood at attention in front of his desk, nerves getting the best of her.

"I'm no longer fit for command," Maria broke the silence; acknowledging her current mental state.

To Maria's surprise, Fury laughed; looking up at her. Maria studied him in utter confusion as he smiled at her with amusement. "Take a seat," he gestured to the chair beside her, as he himself sat down in his own seat.

She complied, stiffly sitting down. "Hill," he leaned back in his chair, his demeanor now a little more serious, "I've had one foot out the door of this organisation for a few years now. Letting you slowly take over more and more responsibilities, so when the time came, it'd be a seamless transition for you to step in." Maria's heart fell; she'd figured this out awhile ago, which made her failure hurt all the more with this new verbal confirmation. "But I'll be honest with you, I've felt ready to leave for quite awhile now, and the only reason I'm still here is because you haven't shown me you're ready yet." Maria nodded her head, doing everything to keep herself from falling apart again. "Well, not until now, that is," he added.

Maria cocked her head in total puzzlement, "Sir?"

"Your problem has always been that you're too good," he began to explain. "Your missions are always successful. Your agents are always compliant. You catch things that no one else sees. And because of this, you've never known loss. You've never known what it's like to give orders that result in deaths of the innocent." He folded his hands in front of him. "Seeing clear cut choices is a luxury that a leader doesn't have. There's always a scale you're trying to balance in every decision you make, because every decision has its consequences."

Maria shook her head, following his logic, yet seeing a flaw in it in regards to her current state, "But if I can't make a decision, regardless of its consequences, I can't lead at all."

"You'll make decisions," he said matter-of-factly, "They'll just be harder to make. Like today."

The problem was, she didn't make a decision that day, she froze up. "I didn't activate the force field."

"You would have."

Maria imagined a scenario where Tony didn't get out of the cage, and he, along with Hope, didn't activate the shield on her behalf. "I'm not entirely sure that's true." She really didn't know if she had it in her to sacrifice Tony for the good of the city, in the emotional state that she had found herself in earlier.

"I am," he said in slight agitation; clearly annoyed with her for not believing him.

Maria sighed, looking down at her hands in her lap as she asked, "will it ever get easier?"

"No, it'll only get harder." Maria looked up to him, not liking his answer. He then smirked at her as he continued, "And then one day, a young brilliant agent will make their way up through the ranks, and you'll give this same speech to them. And if you're lucky, you'll retire; never needing to make one of these decisions again." Maria couldn't help but smile softly back at him. It meant the world to her that he still had faith in her. He then nodded at her before looking off into the distance. "You will --I suppose-- have to live with your decisions for the rest of your life. No escaping them," he said in a hollow voice, like he was being haunted by his own ghosts. He then focused back onto her, "That's the true burden of command."

Maria finally understood his past and her future. And now she felt less optimistic in her career's trajectory, yet more prepared than she ever had been for it.

He then cleared his throat before shifting back into his professional mode, as he ordered her. "You are to oversee the Avengers that are here, and catch that damned bird."

"Yes, Sir," Maria accepted his orders, hoping that she was capable enough to follow them through.

"As for the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D., we're going to pull out of here and leave the Pan-African Alliance to deal with the B.N.U. as they see fit." Maria nodded, agreeing with his decision to allow their allies to take the lead on matters of their own continent.

He held her gaze for a moment, like he was making sure that she was indeed alright before he said, "You are dismissed to the war-room. Your team should all be there by now." She bowed her head in compliance, before she turned and left. Relieved that things were proceeding as usual, and she wasn't reprimanded; grateful for the opportunity to right her wrong.

When she arrived in the War-room, all the first-string Avengers were there along with Thor, Nakia, Shuri, and Okoye. Even Tony was there, now discharged from the infirmary.

Hope turned her head to look at her, her ponytail whipping over her shoulder in the process, as she gave Maria a twinkling smile while she approached them.

Then Sam smirked at her as he said, "Hey, Maria, check this out," where Clint proceeded to jab a cattle prod looking device right into Thor's chest. The Asgardian casually rested his hands on his hips, showing his resilience, as his body shimmered with sparks.

When Clint pulled the prod away from the god, Thor gloated," I barely even felt that."

"That was six hundred joules." Shuri explained, "Thor could wrestle that Impundulu, no problem."

"Or smash it with my hammer!"

"We have to find it first," Maria didn't want to get her hopes up too high.

Nakia then spoke up, "two of my informants have spotted the Impundulu flying over South Tanzania, just fifteen minutes ago. They are tracking it now."

"So, what we're saying here is," Hope crossed her arms in front of her chest, giving her a confident smirk, "we've practically got this bird in the bag."

"Yeah," Steve smiled with a nod. "We're just awaiting your orders, Commander."

Maria was overwhelmed by, not only, this hopeful news, but by all their support. They were allowing her to command over them in this mission, without a hint of hesitation detected in their demeanours.

"Well, what are we doing standing around here then?" She couldn't help but smile as she said, "let's get our asses to Tanzania."

And with that, she was filled with a confidence that she'd nearly forgotten she'd ever possessed, as she was ready to try this whole leadership thing once again. But this time, she would allow her family to help her when she stumbled. Now brave enough to take a spill because getting back up was always an option when she was surrounded by helping hands to raise her back up.


	29. Twenty-Ninth

Maria's team, that was to retrieve de Ruyter and the impundulu, were currently aboard a large Wakandan aircraft heading towards Tanzania. The design of the ship was similar to the Royal Talon. The only significant difference being the size. This particular ship had an additional third lower deck. And on that lower deck, tucked away into a corner room, was where Hope had set up shop.

Working alone at a table she was tinkering away with her tech; trying to finish up before they arrived at their drop location. She stupidly had decided to do this, instead of taking a nap. Something that she desperately needed after being up for --who even knows how long? All she was sure of was that the last time she'd slept, she was in Pennsylvania.

Nakia's contacts had eyes on both de Ruyter and the impundulu, hiding out in a tobacco and coffee complex, just outside of Lilombe. Maria had held the mission briefing about twenty minutes prior. Thor was to capture the impundulu, with the assistance of Tony and Sam. Nakia, Okoye, Natasha, Cint, Steve, and herself were responsible for de Ruyter and the handful of men that he managed to escape with from their last encounter. And lastly, Maria and Shuri were to hang back to monitor the mission.

At first, Hope thought that she was being demoted from her last responsibility which was to capture the impundulu. But it was made clear that Maria wanted her to be a scout on the ground. Which made perfect sense. They didn't quite know what they were going into, and she could easily fly in undetected to get the lay of the land.

"Please tell me you're tweaking and not fixing." Hope jerked her head up to find Maria standing at the doorway, laptop in hand. "Last thing I need is for you guys to be going out there with faulty tech."

Hope smiled at her over her tools, "Don't you worry your gorgeous little head. I'm just modifying."

Maria smirked at her as she ambled over to the edge of the table, "And what, pray tell, are you modifying?"

"I'll tell you, but first," Hope fixed her eyes onto her, softening "how are you doing?" This being the first time she'd been able to personally check in with her after her emotional episode back in Wakanda.

"I'm fine," she said thoughtfully. "Just want to get this damn man and his stupid bird."

Hope smiled encouragingly, "we will."

But then Hope noticed a shift in Maria's demeanour, as she looked to Hope with remorse. "I'm sorry for not responding to your texts," Maria held such visible pain in her eyes, like the guilt was physically hurting her, "or for not contacting you in general. I–"

"Don't," Hope cut her off, not needing to hear it. "I know and I understand." she locked eyes with her, "and it's okay," she said compassionately; fully aware of the turmoil she'd been experiencing during their time apart. Not needing Maria to apologise any more than she already had.

Maria gave her a small nod like she was thanking her for her understanding, before looking over to her work area. "So, your modifications?"

"Right," Hope shifted gears in her head before diving into it. "I'm adding secondary components to my blasters." Hope picked up a small round metal disk, about the size of a watch face, with two small, short, parallel prods protruding out from its side. "I'm planning on putting this piece here," she wiggled the device, "at the bottom of my wrist. So when I want to shrink something," she then added, "or someone at close proximity, I just simply push this," she pointed to the prods, "into the subject, almost like a taser." She then put it down on the table, grabbing a similarly shaped and sized object, minus the prods. "And on the bottom of my other wrist," she held up the piece, "I've got this, which brings subjects into my suit's system. Meaning I can shrink them along with myself as long as there's an established connection with this pressure plate," she pushed her thumb into the device where a tiny click emanated from it.

"So you don't have to shoot them," Maria nodded in understanding, "And when I say them, I mean Tony, after he's got himself stuck underneath a giant, mutant lightning bird."

Hope smiled, "Exactly," pleased with herself for thinking of the modifications on her own; totally independent of her father.

"Sounds efficient," Maria seemed to have approved of her project. "And now it's like you'll have little wasp stingers."

"Oh, I like that," Hope's eyes widened with excitement, "Stingers. I'm going to call them that from now on." She then looked down to her work, realising the reality that she had yet to successfully complete her task, "Granted, I can get them both to work," she admitted. She had some doubts.

"You could always ask Shuri to help if you feel you need it," Maria innocently suggested.

"I'm hoping I can get it without being shown up by a sixteen-year-old," Hope admitted, knowing that the girl would surely embarrass her with an almost instantaneous resolution.

Maria sounded hopeful, "I'm sure you will." She then muttered under her breath, "God knows you're too stubborn to throw in the towel for anything anyway." Maria then sat down on a stool at the end of the table adjacent to her; resting her computer on top of it as she made herself comfortable to do some work herself.

Hope couldn't help but softly smile at her as she watched her instantly busy herself. Where Hope's mind started to drift off into wonder.

"Hope?" Maria said after some time had passed, not taking her eyes off of her computer screen.

"Yeah?"

"I can feel your eyes on me," she stated, right before she quickly typed something out on her keyboard.

"Can I ask you a question?" Hope then looked back down to her own work as she started to tinker again; now feeling a bit awkward as she continued. "And don't feel like you have to answer if you don't want to. It's just– going back to the topic of sixteen-year-olds," Hope glanced back to Maria, "it's got me thinking."

"Yeah? About what?" Maria's eyes never moved off of her monitor as she asked.

"What exactly happened when you were sixteen with...," Hope awkwardly shrugged, "you know?"

Maria took a deep breath; holding it for a second before letting it out of her nose. "Well," she leaned back, away from her computer, like she was figuring out where to start; taking a moment before looking to Hope. "My mom," she began, only to quickly clarify, "ah, step-mom," she then continued, "is a very religious person. So after my parents got married we all started attending church together," she explained rather casually. "I had no choice in the matter. As long as I was under their roof, I had to go."

"Did you like going?"

"Um," Maria practically laughed, before sliding her jaw to the side, "well, I absolutely despised the messages they preached. Women are to submit to men. Homosexuality is an abomination. God is always watching you, judging your sinful nature. With the whole, going to Hell, scare tactics pushed on you." She shook her head, bearing wide eyes, "Like, not exactly what I call pleasant times."

"Understandable," Hope nodded. Not knowing personally what it would have been like to grow up under toxic religious indoctrination, for that she was raised in a secular household. But she could imagine what that could do to a person. Especially those of marginalised groups.

"And the Bible is just one big contradiction of itself and all the supernatural claims don't make any logical sense. And yet everyone insists that they do," Maria rambled out in an even paced, thoughtful manner, as if she were in that moment, being bombarded by the ghosts of logical inconsistencies that had haunted her childhood. "They always said stuff like: all you have to do is pray and have faith and God will just magically give you the answers to all your questions through –I don't even know– like your emotions or something. While totally disregarding the reality that faith is not a pathway to truth." Hope couldn't help but bite down a smile while watching Maria's data-driven brain trying to rationally work out faith based religion. Maria caught her smirk where she mirrored the expression herself. "Whenever I used to point this stuff out in front of my brother, my mom would freak," Maria looked to be holding back a chuckle as she seemed swept away in memory. "But saying that," she sighed, "I didn't mind Friday night youth-group. Just hanging out with a bunch of kids my own age doing random activities. That was usually fun." Maria then locked eyes with Hope," And that's where I met her."

"Your girlfriend?"

"Yeah," she said softly, where Hope could tell that the girl still held a tender spot in her heart. "Just a couple weeks after my sixteenth birthday, we got a new pastor and she was his daughter."

"Okay, this doesn't sound like it's going to end well for her either."

Maria nodded, "you would be correct in that assumption."

"Oh, dear," Hope braced herself for what was to come next.

"We were inseparable from the start," Maria continued. "Then before we knew it, we had become more than friends. But we --of course-- had to hide our relationship. Nobody knew." Maria then shifted in her seat, like she was mentally preparing herself. "Until one day, during a church picnic, our secret came out." She shook her head, "We thought we were being careful hiding inside the building when everyone else was out on the lawn. But her dad came inside for some reason --Maybe he was looking for her. I don't know-- but," Maria gazed off towards Hope's gadgets laying out across the table; eyes glazed over, "he ended up catching us making out in the Sunday school room.

"Oh, god," Hope lightly gasped; knowing the story was going someplace tragic like that but was still hoping that it wasn't going to be that bad. "What did he do?"

"It was more so: what didshedo?" Maria's eyes remained fixed on that same spot, "She shoved me off of her and told him I forced myself onto her."

"What?" Hope was instantly angered, "That little…" she stopped herself from swearing, "I know I shouldn't be cursing out a teenager but--"

"It was okay," Maria looked over to her, giving her a supportive smile.

"How was it okay?" Hope felt offended by the fact that Maria didn't seem offended.

"I mean, it sure didn't feel great at the time," Maria half-heartedly shrugged. "But at least one of us got out of it. Didn't make sense for the both of us to get into trouble."

"Yeah, I guess," Hope sighed. "But she could've taken the blame," not letting her completely off the hook.

"She was scared. I didn't fault her," Maria said so calmly. "Besides, she had to live with her father knowing what she'd done. He may not have said it out loud but he knew what we were doing was consensual." Maria drew in a long breath before saying, "I was just their public scapegoat." She looked a little hurt for the first time during her story, as she said, "So I didn't fight it. Everyone was better off that way."

"You got kicked out of your house!" Hope gawped. Not pleased in the slightest by Maria's acceptance of her reprehensible fate.

"Yeah, well, it was preferable to conversion therapy."

"That was your option?" Hope felt pure disgust in the pit of her stomach in hearing her mention that repugnant legalized torture method.

"No," Maria clarified with that same anguish in her eyes that she'd had when she told her about her mother making her leave her brother's funeral, "pretty sure my parents were glad for the excuse to kick me out." Hope shook her head; pissed all over again at her caregivers. "Conversion therapy would've been her fate. Along with the public shaming," Maria explained, "which would've called into question her father's parenting skills and his validity to lead the church." She clarified, "he'd only been there for a few months, they could've easily fired him. He didn't have the loyalty of the congregation yet."

"You were a teenager protecting a grown-ass man and his family," Hope clenched her jaw, before getting up out of her seat to walk over to Maria, still mad as ever, yet her demeanour started to soften when she reached her side; finding Maria's actions and overall attitude towards her past situation, just so unbelievably remarkable. "You are much too good for this world, you know that?" She said while turning Maria in her seat so that she could sit on her lap; wrapping her arms around her shoulders after possessively plunking herself down on top of her.

"I'm not," Maria slid her arms around Hope's lower back.

"You are. Because if that were me, I wouldn't have accepted my fate so graciously. And I definitely wouldn't have forgiven either of them." Hope sternly nodded, "I hold grudges, you know?"

"Yeah," Maria smirked, "you're like your dad in that way."

Hope narrowed her eyes at her for comparing her to her father. Though she knew that her comment had some truth to it. "So," she decided to let Maria's words slide, not wanting to derail their conversation, "what ever happened to her?" Hope started innocently fiddling with Maria's shirt collar; really wanting to play with her hair, but she wasn't able to with it being tied back: mission ready.

"Last I heard, she's married to a man and has a few children with him."

"Do you think she's in love with him?"

"I sure hope so," she said earnestly. "That'd be quite the suppressed life if she wasn't."

"Honestly," Hope gawked at her, "do you ever get tired of being so damned righteous?" Hope shook her head in awe, "You really don't wish ill of anybody, do you? Like not even a little bit?"

Maria smirked at her question before thoughtfully addressing her. "I don't see much point in that. It takes a lot of emotional energy to hold onto things. And besides, grudges do absolutely nothing to the person who wronged you in the first place."

Hope was coming to realise that Maria may not have held animosity towards others, but she still had an overall distrust of people; caused by the painful transgression that they'd repeatedly afflicted on her.

"Rationale over emotion," Hope smirked, focusing on her words and not on the pain in her eyes. "You really always are the level headed deputy director, aren't you?"

"Yeah," she sheepishly sighed, "until I have an emotional breakdown." Maria said as if she were disgusted in herself.

"Thank god for those," Hope dramatically smacked her hands on top of Maria's shoulders; leaving them there to rest, "They're like the only thing that lets me know you're human."

"Because otherwise I'd be an emotionless robot?" Maria cocked her head to the side, clearly misinterpreting her.

"No," Hope smiled at her as she slid her hands to cup Maria's face, "because otherwise you'd be too perfect. And it wouldn't be fair to the rest of us mere mortals."

"You're hilarious," Maria said sarcastically; evidently not taking her words to heart.

"No, I'm really not. I'm just right." She grinned while nodding, "Almost always, actually." Hope dipped her head down to Maria, with intentions of kissing her, but right before their lips came together she was stopped by a voice.

"Are you guys, just like, always nauseous from being so disgustingly in love all the time, or...?" Hope's head snapped up to find Tony leaning against the doorway; looking pleased with himself like he'd actually just said something clever.

"What do you want, Tony?" Maria huffed in annoyance, while Hope lifted herself up from off of her lap so that Maria could swivel in her seat to look at him.

"The girls want to run something past you."

"Which girls?"

He threw his hands up like it was obvious. "You know, Nakia, Okoye, Nat, Steve." He then shook his head, "Thegirls."

Maria turned to Hope, rolling her eyes as she showed the woman her annoyance towards him, where Hope couldn't help but chuckle towards her reaction.

"Also, I'm supposed to tell both of you we should be landing in ten minutes."

Maria then looked to Hope's project on the table before gazing back up to her. "I'll finish it later," Hope answered her question before she even posed it. "And suit up now." Maria nodded, like Hope had responded appropriately, before she got up, taking her computer, and left.

But Tony didn't follow Maria straightaway, instead he remained in his spot, leering at Hope's work. "Before I go, need anything?" He asked Hope casually, "Water? Screwdriver? An engineer who can improve whatever it is you're attempting there with his genius intellect?"

Hope really was never thrown off by Tony's audacity. She'd been surrounded by men like him her entire life. Rich elitists who thought they knew better than everyone else, under any and all circumstances. "Yeah, actually, now that you mention it," Hope smiled disingenuously. "Do you happen to have a sippy cup on you? preferably one made out of a super dense material." She eyed him; implying that she'd really love to send a sturdy projectile towards his head, like she had in the past.

"Okay, yeah, I get it," he muttered. "You and Maria really are made for eachother." He then turned and walked away while talking to himself, "bonded through threats of violence."

Hope chuckled to herself before she started to get ready; excited for their mission despite her already tired body.

* * *

After takinga lap around the compound Hope flew into the main warehouse, slipping in under the roof, which was open under the overhang.

She'd reported seven men surrounding the building on the compound's grounds, before buzzing around inside; over tall shelving and pallets stacked with crates full of raw coffee beans.

"This place is crawling," Hope reported through her comms, while flying over head after head. de Ruyter admittedly had more men left then they'd thought, and they were all armed with automatic firearms. The majority of them weren't on alert, they were mostly chatting amongst themselves while smoking. There was even a card game in session on top of one of the crates. But regardless of their relaxed demeanor, they were still ready to jump up within a second's notice to defend their operation.

Just as Hope flew over a few more stacks nearing the far end of the warehouse, she saw a movement from the corner of her eye. Whipping her head to the side, she saw the impundulu perched on the top shelf of the stack just next to her. She immediately dove down to take cover behind a nearby crate on a similarly leveled shelf, just across from the bird. Knowing that the creature would see her if it turned towards her. Luckily, the creature was facing the other direction, sights downwards as its head twitched back and forth like it was possibly tracking mice on the warehouse floor.

Hope, quietly walking, wedged herself between the crate and a shrink-wrapped pallet of coffee beans, to sneak around to the far side of her shelf; avoiding the impundulu's highly acute senses. Once she reached the end, she peered down and between the gaps of the shelf in front of her. She could see de Ruyter (knowing his face from seeing his photo in the briefing). He was a tall, muscular man, with a shaved head, and was currently shirtless in a pair of jeans. He was heavily tattooed with a large prominent bull head etched into his torso that stood out in contrast with his pale, white skin. The man was standing next to a table, with a few guns laying out on it, as well as a laptop computer and a chrome briefcase.

"Okay, I've got eyes on de Ryter," Hope spoke in a low tone. "But I don't think I can get any closer with the impundulu right next to me."

"We have what we need," Maria came in from the other end; seeing everything Hope was from her bodycam, "hold your position."

Hope nodded, "alright." She then instantly realized that she hadn't responded appropriately for a mission, corrected her vocabulary, "understood," she quickly added.

"Barton?" Maria's voice came through the comms again.

"Yeah," he answered, "I'm in the nest. Locked and loaded." Hope understood that to mean he'd successfully gotten to high ground, somewhere along the perimeter, ready to take enemies out with his bow.

Maria then asked, "Rogers?"

"We got the lay of the place, ready to move on your orders." Steve said on behalf of the ground team that was to infiltrate the building. Evidently watching Hope's cam on the Kimoyo Beads that Shuri had supplied him with.

"Alright." Maria ordered, "Thor, you're up."

"Excellent," the Asgardiain said enthusiastically.

Then, within seconds, Hope jumped at the sound of a huge thunder strike, that hit just outside of the warehouse. She knew it was coming, but the vibration echoed through the building and shook the stack beneath her feet, which still startled her.

Before the men beneath her had time to react, the impundulu took off like a bullet, soaring underneath the partially open loading dock door, that lay just to the side of de Ruyter.

They were planning on Thor's lightning hit to grab de Ruyter's attention, which would hopefully make him send out the creature to deal with their air team but this worked out even better. Like the impundulu sensed its own element being manipulated by another; seeing it as a potential threat to instantly investigate on its own.

"The impundulu is out of the building," Hope reported.

"Yeah, we got eyes on it," Sam responded from somewhere in the air.

"Air team, switch your comms," Maria instructed, wanting the two groups to not distract each other, now that they were on individual missions. "Ground team, you have a go," Maria ordered, where they wasted no time in breaching the building from the far end, opposite where de Ruyter was, as Hope took flight, making her way over to observe them.

Hope was under orders to remain out of sight even during the breach, as she was their designated eyes and backup.

Okoye and Steve pushed in first. Before the men by the door had time to raise their weapons, Steve had knocked one unconscious with his shield and Okoye had taken two others out with a twirl of her spear.

"Two coming up on your left," Hope informed them, where Natasha started running full speed towards the location just as the pair rounded the corner. As she approached them, one drew his gun about to shoot her, where Nakia threw one of her ring-blades, knocking the weapon out of his hand, where Natasha proceeded to dive on them; taking them both out with a few kicks and a body flip.

Hope proceeded to guide them through as they quickly drew closer to de Ruyter's position. But when she managed to catch a glance of the B.N.U. leader once again, she was alarmed by his actions. He wasn't running away or picking up arms, instead he was tinkering with an antenna and his laptop. He was also wearing an odd helmet that looked like an E.E.G. headset, with electrodes that looked to be connecting his brain to his tech setup.

"Oh, fuck," Hope muttered.

Maria must have been watching her bodycam as she asked, "Is that--?"

"Yeah. Pretty sure," Hope cut her off, assuming that he was trying to activate the Enclave mind control device. The very tech he'd been using to manage the impundulu, according to their intel.

"Rogers. de Ruyter. Now!" Maria barked.

"On it," Steve replied, as he booked it for de Ruyter with his teammates fanning out behind him, protecting him on his flanks, while bullets started flying towards them. There were at least ten or so men that were still standing, trying to take them out.

But just as Steve was a few metres away from the South African, his back still turned to them as he faced his computer, de Ruyter simply said, "halt." Where the captain abruptly stopped dead in his tracks.

de Ruyter turned around, smiling as he looked at Steve who was just standing there, still, like a zombie. Quickly, Hope scanned the place, from her aerial view, finding that not only Steve, but everyone in the building was standing in their spot, not moving. "Ah, guys?" Hope spoke into her comms, "you still with me?" But her team didn't respond. "Maria?"

"Yeah, I'm seeing this," she said. "Barton, you still with us?"

"Yeah, I'm here," he responded, his location still outside of the building.

Then de Ruyter called out, to address the warehouse. "My B.N.U. brothers, continue to hold down this building," where his men all complied; picking up their weapons and spreading out. "My S.H.I.E.L.D. intruders," he looked to the team, "fall in line over there," he pointed to a spot in front of a nearby stack, where Hope's four mission companions complied.

"I'm going in," Hope announced, ready to fly straight for de Ruyter.

"No, you're not," Maria countered.

"I can get in there and destroy that machine!"

"You are to stay back," she asserted.

"But he could make them hurt each other," Hope pushed back, scared that her teammates wouldn't come out the other end alive, if they didn't act immediately.

"Van Dyne, hold your position. That's an order," Maria spoke so firmly it took Hope aback. Making her realize that she wasn't bantering with her girlfriend, she was refusing her C.O.'s direct order. Which made her feel ashamed. She should have known better.

Hope dropped her feet onto a crate, at the top of a shelf, as she complied. "Holding position," she sheepishly said.

"Good," Maria simply said before instructing them, "Now, change to our secondary comms frequency." Where Hope was quick to comply, tuning to their other, predetermined channel, as she kept her eyes glued to the scene below her. "Barton?" Maria checked in to see if he was there on the line.

"Here," he said.

"Van Dyne?"

"Yeah."

"Okay," Maria took a breath, "let's assess. Van Dyne, why are you not under his control? Is it because you're miniaturized?"

"I don't think so. It's not like I'm smaller than the electromagnetic spectrum at this size."

"What is your helmet made out of?" Shuri asked her, as it sounded like she was pushing into Maria's mic.

"Ah, it's actually woven from unstoppable molecules."

"You got your hands on Reed Richards's molecular structural designs?" Shuri gawked, "That's so cool."

"Are we theorizing that it's the helmet?" The gears in Hope's head started to turn, "Because I think you might be onto something with that."

"The mind control device is being delivered through a high frequency wavelength," Shuri started to ponder out loud.

"The higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength," Hope continued.

"So when they hit your helmet, the waves are so small, they vibrate the unstoppable molecules at a faster rate…"

"Which strengthens the molecular bonds," Hope nodded.

"Because that is how unstoppable molecules work," Shuri excitedly said, showing that she was familiar with Dr. Richard's work on the subject.

"And as long as my comm receiver isn't tuned to the device's frequency..."

"You're good."

Maria then interrupted them, "please tell me this geek-out session is going to help us here."

"Actually, I do have an idea," Shuri began, "Unfortunately, I do not have the information, time, or resources to fashion a bunch of Wasp helmets. But we do have destructive interference available to us." Hope nodded, totally on the same page. 'I can whip up a transmitter in no time," the girl said, planning on sending out a frequency that would cancel out the mind control's frequency.

"We captured the impundulu!" Hope suddenly heard Sam's voice over Maria's and Shuri's shared comms, which brought a small sense of relief to the woman. Though, she was still much too concerned about her teammates below her standing around like mannequins, to fully appreciate the good news.

"Barton, Van Dyne, standby," Maria said. "And, Van Dyne, keep an eye on our team. And do not engage unless it's life or death."

"Understood," Hope nodded.

Hope impatiently waited for orders as she nervously watched the scene below her. Luckily, de Ruyter wasn't paying much attention to her teammates as he was back at his computer. She then overheard him mutter to himself, "okay, now where is my bird." Which peaked Hope's interest. She decided to stealthily gain a little ground, just so that she could sneak a peek at his monitor; seeing a map with a blip on it.

"Guys," Hope spoke into her comms as she flew back to her spot atop the shelf, "it looks like the impundulu has a G.P.S. tracker on it."

"Okay," Maria responded, sounding very distracted, "I'll pass that info onto Stark," and then she was gone.

After about ten minutes, Maria broke their radio silence. "Barton, how many strong is their perimeter?"

"Just two. I took most of them out when we breached the place."

"Kay. Van Dyne, how about in the warehouse?"

"Nine able-bodied. Three injured. Five unresponsive. And that's not including our people who are currently under new allegiance."

"I'm on my way now carrying Shuri's transmitter. Barton, you're my cover in. Van Dyne, You're to guide me through to de Ruyter while remaining hidden."

"Hidden?"

"Yes, you're our last line of defence. And If I'm to become affected by the mind control device, I need you to shoot me. And do it quickly. Because I might shoot you. And my gun fires bullets."

"There are too many--"

"Then you are to shoot everyone else and contain us if you can," she cut Hope off before she even had time to question her. "Barton, you'll then come in to assist."

"Yes, Ma'am," Clint answered straightaway, like Maria had simply asked him to pass her the salt at the dinner table. But before Hope could voice her objections to this extremely risky plan, Barton came in again, "I have you in my sights." Hope was sure she heard Clint loose a couple arrows, "coast is clear," he then informed Maria.

"Van Dyne, you have five seconds to get into position above the south doors."

Hope didn't have time to fight Maria on her insane mission plan as she beelined it for the doors. She hated everything about it. There were too many men! Maria should have ordered Hope to help her clear the room.

Hope barely made it to the end of the room when the door crashed open. There was a guard right inside the threshold but before Hope could so much as warn Maria about him, she stepped to him, stomping his shin, visibly breaking his leg, before thrusting her knife into the side of his neck.

Then another man started shooting at her but Maria swung her victim's body to lean against her, using it as a human shield, before lifting her gun; shooting the new threat between his eyes; dropping him dead in one hit. Maria then discarded the man's corpse before heading onwards, taking enemies out left and right with just her knife and handgun.

Hope barely had to guide her. Her instincts were so well honed that it was like she was a machine with x-ray vision and advanced reflexes; nothing could stop her. Hope couldn't believe her eyes, she truly had thought that Maria and her were on similar footing when it came to combat fighting. Which, in hindsight, was ludicrous to ever think. Maria was a trained marine. She'd lived and breathed combat since she was a teenager. And every bit of that showed as she took out every single B.N.U. lacky; the last one dropping to his knees right in front of her line up of agents as she threw her knife into his jugular.

"Captain America," de Ruyter smiled, not looking to have a care that she'd just killed all his men and stormed his hideout. "Attack this intruder."

To Hope's horror, Steve stepped to Maria, pulling his shield from off his back and swung it at her. It was like he was trying to cut her in half, he moved so quickly with Maria barely dodging his strike as she hopped to the side.

"Ah, Shuri," Maria said into her comms as she ducked under another swing of the shield. "I thought you said this thing would work?"

"I think it is. You are not under its control."

"Let me guess," de Ruyter crossed his arms in front of him. "you thought cancelling out the signal was just going to instantly wipe the effects of the device, just like that?"

Maria was backing away from Steve, clearly not wanting to engage with him, while still trying to not get hurt. Steve was so fast and strong that he could kill her with a well positioned punch, which brought fear to Hope as she watched them. She really had to use all her strength to not disobey orders and fly down to assist her, in that moment.

"Strike him in the head," Cint came in through the comms. "As hard as you can."

"What?" Maria asked, as she jumped to dodge a punch but caught Steve's elbow, which aggressively knocked her into a pallet of packaged coffee beans, making Hope wince, knowing how that must have hurt.

"That's what snapped me out of it when I was under mind control. Nat hit me really hard in the head."

Suddenly, Hope realized that Maria now had a long metal rod in her hand, as she found her stance again. It must have been lying next to the shelf that she'd just pushed herself away from. She then gracefully spun it around her body before charging at Steve; delivering a few strikes, where he blocked them all with his shield. She was persistent though, as she then dropped low, like she was doing a spin kick, but instead of using her foot, she used the bar; taking Steve out from behind the knees, where he crashed onto his back. Then she carried through in one swift movement, standing up and spinning on her heels, where she then struck downwards with her weapon, right to his head.

The hit was loud, which knotted Hope's stomach as she wondered if the strike had seriously injured him, or worse, killed him. To her relief, Steve shortly brought his hand to his head, stirring as he muttered, "what the…."

That was all Hope needed to hear before she flew over and above the stack that was right behind the other three agents. She grew to size, hiding behind sacks full of coffee beans that were piled up to her chest.

"Maria?" Steve asked in complete confusion, which only encouraged Hope more as she quickly grabbed up two sacks, which must have individually weighed about twenty pounds, and held them out above Natasha and Nakia, dropping them on top of their heads; knocking them both to the ground.

"Wat de fok?" de Ruyter gawked, just as Hope ducked down in hiding. "Attack!" He yelled, with clear panic in his voice, where Hope couldn't even tell who he was ordering. Probably anyone who would listen.

Hope peeked down to see only Okoye complying, who was now stepping to Maria with her spear, while Steve was struggling to sit up on the floor, still in a daze.

The Dora Milaje, surprisingly, retracted the butt end of her spear into itself. Shortening her weapon to a length similar to a quarterstaff. Okoye then lunged at Maria, her spear head down, then thrusting up at her towards her chest.

Maria parried the attack, pushing the spear away with her rod, that she was using again like a staff, only for Okoye to step in and try to bash the butt end of her weapon into Maria's face. Maria was quick, like she anticipated the move, as she thrust the back end of her weapon upwards, blocking her strike, while crouching and twirling her body away and besides Okoye. Now both facing the same direction. Maria then thrust her staff, trying to make contact with Okoye's torso, but she was stopped by the spear, easily pushing it outwards and away, sending Maria back out in front of her. Maria huffed before twirling her weapon, moving in for a head strike, but, again, Okoye was too skilled and blocked it.

They continued like this for a while, matching strike for strike where it was apparent that Hope was, truly, watching a commander and a general. It wasn't even their physical skill that was hindering a victor from arising. It was that they were both equally in each other's heads. Understanding the other's tactics. There were no uncalculated steps, no unintentional strikes, it was meticulously purposeful.

Hope realised that this may never end as an idea popped into her head. Okoye might be in Maria's head but she wasn't in Hope's.

Hope then shot a sack of coffee beans in front of her, picking it up as it was now a shrunken beanbag-sized item. She then waited, looking for her window. When she was convinced that she'd found it, she flung it towards the Dora Milaje. Just as the sack was about to hit her, Hope shot it mid-air where it came crashing down on top of her head at its full size; knocking her to the ground right in front of Maria.

"Wat de hel gaan hier aan?" de Ruyter pulled out a gun, shooting up at where Hope was. But Hope had already shrunken down in size before he'd even turned to her, as she flew away from that particular shelf, where he didn't seem to have even noticed.

He then abruptly turned his weapon onto Nakia, who was struggling to her feet; helping Natasha up along with her. "Nobody move!" He spat, "or the savage will get a bullet sized hole through her primitive brain."

"What the fuck did that racist just say?" Shuri gawked angrily into the comms. "Somebody kick him in the balls for me!"

"I got you," Hope flew over his head with her stomach to the ceiling, where she then arched downwards doing a prolonged aerial backflip while growing to size, right behind his back, as she used her momentum to kick him right between the legs.

The scream that came out of the man didn't sound human. He instantly fell to his knees while dropping his gun to the floor so that he could grab his crotch.

"That's right!" Shuri cheered. "The legs that I engineered kicked that skinhead, fascist in the ipipi!"

"You're right," Hope smirked, not familiar with the word she'd used, but definitely understood the gist, as she kicked the firearm away from him, and ripped off his headset, all while he was still collapsed on the ground, "this was your victory, kid."

"So is everyone back?" Maria pulled out her firearm, which was previously holstered at her leg, as she eyed her team. "Anyone still feeling like they want to kill me?"

"Van Dyne's the one who bashed my head in, not you," Natasha groaned as she rubbed her scalp.

"Nobody's killing the newbie who helped save our sixes," Steve huffed, where Natasha turned to give Hope a genuine smirk of appreciation. Then both Okoye and Nakia bowed their heads in thanks to her as well.

Maria holstered her weapon, seemingly satisfied that everyone was indeed, themselves. "Cap," she looked to the man, "You mind grabbing, Fuck-Face here?" She gestured to de Ruyter.

"Normally, I hate it when you swear like that," he walked to the man, aggressively yanking him up to his feet, "but with this Nazi, I'm in full support of it." He then started dragging the man out.

Maria then went to de Ruyter's computer, obviously wanting to shut down the mind control device. "It's password protected," Maria huffed, "I'm gunna have to get Stark in here."

Hope then deactivated her helmet as she asked, "can I give it a look?"

Maria shrugged, stepping away as she gestured for her to take a stab at it.

Hope found that it was just a Windows password. She then noted the Dell laptop, feeling rather confident that she could use the workaround that she was familiar with. She was --by no means-- a pro hacker, but she had taught herself a few things while her dad and her were underground those couple years.

As Maria stepped away to see to her team, Hope rebooted the laptop. While the system was loading up, she pressedF12on the keyboard; bringing up a menu screen. She navigated through it until she opened up a text box as she quickly typed in a few lines of code. Pressing enter, a Windows home screen opened.

"You did it," Maria stepped back to her, looking over her shoulder.

"Ah, not quite," Hope then went to the taskbar, openingpassword keysnavigating toWindowslog in, then toreset password. "This is just a shadow system," she explained while typing in a new password and setting it, before rebooting the computer once again. "Okay, it should be good now," Hope moved to the side for Maria to have access to it once more.

When Maria went to take over she was quick to comment, "it's still password locked."

"Yeah, try: "fuckface." All lowercase. No spaces."

Maria smirked as she quickly typed. "I'm in," her smirk, turning into a pleased smile as she shook her head in amusement. "By the way," she said, not looking away from the screen, "Thanks for sacking everyone earlier. Especially, you know who."

Hope grinned, "I honestly don't know if you're talking about Okoye or de Ruyter."

Maria only chuckled, as she very clearly avoided any sort of clarification to her comment.

It didn't take long for her to figure out how to turn off the device, while Hope walked over to see the girls, apologising to them for their current headaches. Where they all ended laughing at the situation.

* * *

About a half hour later, their aircraft was parked on the complex's grounds. A clean up crew who were contracted out by S.H.I.E.L.D. was just clearing out after disposing of the bodies, and erasing any and all traces of what had happened there.

The impundulu was currently sedated and in a forcefield enhanced cage, that Tony and Thor had already secured into the hull of the aircraft, with the Asgardian babysitting the creature for the duration of the flight. de Ruyter was separated from his bird, shackled on the main deck of the ship with Steve keeping an eye on him.

At present, everyone was slowly making their way out of the warehouse towards the aircraft, ready to head out. They were carrying various firearms in hand as they were charged with the task of cleaning out the weapons.

Hope had two AR-15s slung over her shoulder as she walked down an aisle of the warehouse. She was now really starting to feel run down, ready for a rest. But she pushed through her tired state, picking up her pace when she saw Maria standing in the middle, empty handed as she was only there to call her team back.

Hope had this guilt in the pit of her stomach, that she so desperately needed to address as she fell still next to Maria. She bit her lip a little nervously as she nearly blurted, "I'm sorry for questioning you earlier. And for not listening to you from the start." Maria looked to her, expressionlessly. "I had no idea what you ended up doing was even an option, like physically speaking," she still couldn't believe what Maria had accomplished when she stormed the place. "I just saw we were in trouble and reacted."

"It's naive to fault a spirited filly for bucking before she's broken in," Maria simply said.

"Wait," Hope shook her head, totally not expecting to hear what she just had. "Did you just call me a wild horse?"

"You wouldn't be the first," Natasha said as she approached them, with a small crate of various weapons in her hands. "She's definitely said that to Sharon before," she smirked at Maria before looking at Hope.

"And how did she take it?" Hope crossed her arms.

"I believe she said: You'll never break me, bitch."

"No," Maria smirked at the new arrival, "it was actually: Bitch, you ain't never breaking me."

Natasha tilted her head to eye her best friend, "and you kind of didn't."

"I manage her fine," Maria said matter-of-factly. "She just scowls a lot while I direct her."

"You think you can do the same for this one?" Natasha gestured to Hope with her head.

Maria looked to Hope thoughtfully as she eventually said, "she's not quite as fiery as Sharon."

"True. But I think she might be a bit more clever," Natasha nodded, while studying the woman now on trial.

"You're thinking she'll play nice while she's secretly chomping at the bit, preparing to rebel?"

"Oo, I like how you brought back the horse metaphor, just then."

"Thank you."

Hope huffed, "can you guys please stop talking about me like I'm not standing right here?" Yet, she admittedly felt a little relieved to hear that she wasn't the only disobedient person Maria had to deal with.

"See," Natasha said, still ignoring Hope, "that's a little too assertive right there."

"You're right," Maria nodded, "she's definitely going to be a problem."

"Okay. I get it, point made," Hope threw her arms up in the air. "I'll no longer fight your orders," she said, looking at Maria, before realizing that she was guilty of doing the same with Natasha too. "Either of yours," she said, now looking to the spy.

"I don't like how she just added that on to the end there," Natasha said to Maria, "like I was a hesitant afterthought."

"Well, to be fair," Maria shrugged, "when she disobeyed your orders, she did become the Queen Slayer."

"That was your mission, they were technically your orders."

"Mission plans don't make orders, people do." Maria countered, "I didn't order anyone to do anything that day."

Natasha gawked at her, "are we really going to have this debate again?"

Clint then came walking past them with his arms full, commenting on their conversation, "I'm with Maria. Briefings aren't orders."

Natasha then followed after. "Just because it's written down doesn't omit it from being an order."

"It's not about if it's written down or not," Clint explained his perspective, "It's about it being a plan of attack, and not a stringent set of orders." Their conversation trailed off as they exited the building together.

Hope looked over to Maria who was smirking at the two agents that had just left before she gazed over to Hope.

Hope was still bothered by her behaviour as she started again, in the most sincere way, "I really do promise I won't be a problem, I just--"

"I was half expecting something like this from you. So don't worry so much about it," Maria cut her off, as she casually spoke.

"What?" Hope shook her head, feeling hurt by her words, "You were?"

Maria softened her eyes as she smirked at her, "You're not the first civilian to join this rodeo. And an unquestioning chain of command isn't exactly ingrained into you academic types." She then shrugged nonchalantly, "So I'm used to dealing with voiced opinions over direct orders."

"That wasn't my intent," Hope practically blurted. "And I do respect you and your command, I swear. It's just--"

"It was a reaction," Maria said in understanding, "You question while actively seeking out information. Like a scientist."

"Yeah."

"I know." She nodded. "S.H.I.E.L.D. training will help you with that impulse," she said like she had the utmost confidence in that. "Are you good?" She asked, like she could tell that Hope was still a bit bothered.

"Arewegood?"

Maria crossed her arms and sighed in exaggeration, "I don't know. You briefly hesitated an order before complying with it through full cooperation. I may have to send you to the gallows for that." She shook her head, "And while I'm at it, I might as well drag Tony off to the guillotine. 'Cause he's --by far-- the worst at following chain of command."

Hope had to bite down a giggle, so relieved that she was forgiven for her misstep.

Hope then studied Maria for a moment, her thoughts falling back to their mission. "Maria?"

"Yes, Hope?"

Hope stared into her gorgeous eyes as she shook her head in awe, "That was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. I watched you clear this warehouse with just a sidearm and a knife. I still don't even understand how you did it." Hope stepped to her as she gently took a hold of her shirt collar, only to seductively pull at it before she ran her hand down to her chest. "You are the most spectacular person I've ever met."

"You better watch yourself," Maria smiled with intrigue, while lowering her gaze, "you don't want me reporting you for misconduct in the workplace."

God, Hope had never been so turned on by a person as she could feel her body starting to throb.

"Here," suddenly something was thrust between them; looking over to see Tony passing by smoking a cigar. Hope grabbed the item, finding a paper bag that readThere goes my lunchon it.

"Okay, where did he even get a barf bag from?" She looked to Maria as she then continued, "And I thought you were going to murder him like five months ago?" She chucked the item over her shoulder.

"I'm getting to it. I've been busy." Maria then looked to the cocky man as he exited the warehouse, "But," she slid her jaw to the side, "there does seem to be a plus side to my procrastination." Maria looked back to Hope, "Because now -- apparently-- the guillotine's an option that I never even thought of until n--" But Hope couldn't stand to hear anymore as she aggressively pushed Maria up against the pallet of coffee beans that stood behind her. "Hope!" Maria barely got out before the woman hungrily pressed her mouth to hers.

Maria was fast to grab the AR-15s from Hope's shoulder, dropping them to the ground before she wrapped her arms around her body, pulling her in closer.

Hope hated that she couldn't feel the pressure of Maria's body as much as she normally could due to her wasp suit. But that didn't stop her from thrusting her hips up against hers, trying for as much stimulation as she could.

Once she'd properly explored Maria's mouth with her tongue, she moved down to her neck, yanking Maria's collar open as she began kissing it. "You got that damn man," she worked her way to her pulse point, "and his stupid bird." She then bit at the spot making Maria gasp, before muttering, "and it was so fucking hot." She then began sucking at the location where she could feel Maria's weight falling harder into the stack behind her; her head stretching further to the side exposing as much of her neck as possible. Her nails digging into Hope's scalp, as she moaned through the experience.

Soon Hope heard a muffled voice, quickly realizing that someone was talking to Maria through the Bluetooth in her ear. "For the love of God, Hope," Maria gasped before she raised her hand to her ear, talking in an amazingly steady voice, "Yeah, I'll be right there." Which made Hope smile. Finding Maria to be so multi talented.

"You just promised me you wouldn't be a problem," Maria huffed as she brought her other hand to Hope's head, joining the one that was still clawing at her scalp, "you dirty, filthy liar," she added, yanking her away from her neck, to only then push her mouth back to Hope's; kissing her like she often had late at night in their bed, before eventually tearing Hope away from her. "Okay, enough," she gasped, catching her breath. "We're loaded, ready to take de Ryder back to Wakanda."

Hope took a step back, trying to conceal a satisfied grin, "And his bird?" Hope asked, full well knowing the answer; just really wanting to drive the point into Maria's head that she caught the creature that had brought her so much stress.

"Yeah, that stupid thing too," Maria smirked as she bent down, scooping up the weapons that she had thrown on the ground; putting them over her own shoulder. "So let's move out."

"Yes, Ma'am," Hope spun on her heels to walk out, with Maria falling in step beside her.

* * *

They were flying for about fifteen minutes already with Maria's team starting to settle into the flight. They had all stripped off their suits and slipped into more comfortable attire.

Maria was currently sitting next to both Sam and Steve watching over de Ryter, who was in shackles, sitting on a bench across from them.

Maria really had no desire to interrogate him. She actually hated questioning people in general. If she could she'd leave that task for someone else, like Natasha. That woman could really read anybody. Which was a skill that Maria wasn't great at, unless it was specifically reading their fighting technique. So she decided to just stay silent. Keeping a strong, but blank stare whenever he looked over to her.

Realizing he wasn't getting anything from her, de Ruyter focused his attention on to Sam. "You're American, eh?" Sam just glared at him, like he was disgusted to his core that he was trying to talk to him. "Yeah, I can tell. Ya got the air of a man who's benefited from Western Civilization." Maria could hear Sam grinding his teeth next to her. "That's why I respect you black Americans. You learned from us how to industrialise. Now if only you'd gone back to your countries and taught your own."

"My ancestors were stolen from Africa," Sam growled, "I don't even know which country I'm from, you racist piece of shit."

de Ryter then smiled in amusement, "I'm not racist, I love and appreciate all races. It's just all this mixing has sent our world into chaos. Your people would be better off in their own designated places."

"Like Wakanda?" Sam looked to him, like he was full of bullshit. Which he was. Sam was smart. He knew the fascist didn't just want separate places for black people, especially not places with power. No, what he wanted was something more akin to internment camps for them.

Before de Ruyter could respond by stringing together some more bigoted bullshit, Hope walked past them, on her way to the lower deck. Maria assumed that she had intentions of working on her blasters again, since that was the very thing she was holding in her hands. Though, she wished that she would instead go take a nap since she'd looked exhausted for the better part of the day.

"Ah, Ms. Van Dyne," He called to her, now totally ignoring Sam, as Hope took a large backstep, turning to see who was addressing her. "I didn't realize you were here," he smiled, clearly not realizing that she was the one who kicked him in the balls earlier. He brought his hands to his heart, "What an honour it is to be finally meeting you. B.N.U.'s greatest investor."

A look of utter confusion fell across the woman's face, as she asked, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm, of course, talking about your charitable contributions to our movement over the years"

"I would never give money to support your cause," she strongly asserted.

"No?" He raised a brow; clearly he was enjoying himself. "Does, 'Revitalising Africa' ring any bells to you?" He cocked his head with an insincere smile.

Suddenly Hope's face went ghostly pale as if some sort of realization just hit her. "What?" She barely got out as her eyes grew in size.

"Ah," de Royter leaned back to rest on his elbow; lounging out sideways on the bench, "you do know it."

Hope didn't remain there, instead she hurriedly rushed away. Worry instantly crept into Maria's being; praying that de Ryter was just messing with her and that everything was okay.

de Ryter then let out a deranged laugh, finding their interaction to be the most amusing.

First, he was racially taunting Sam and now he'd just upset Hope; Maria was really holding back from getting up and punching him in the face.

But to Maria's relief, Okoye calmly walked over from the bridge, abruptly swung her spear into the man's head; knocking him out and saving her the troublle.

She then muttered something under her breath about a hyena's laugh before stoically turning to the three on the bench. "Commander Hill. If I may request your presence on the bridge for a moment?"

Maria nodded as she got up, not pleased that she couldn't follow after Hope, but knowing that her duty to the mission was her first priority.

The Dora Milaje was enquiring about the logistics of their prisoners. Where Maria had assured her that both de Ruyter and the impundulu were Wakanda's prisoners first, but S.H.I.E.L.D. still wished to have access to them if the time ever presented itself that they'd need it. She was pleased with the arrangement, informing her that she'd only need the King's final word to make their agreement binding.

After their chat, Maria exited the room to seek out Hope.

She ended up finding her on the second floor down in the ship's sleeping quarters. Hope had her laptop out on the table that sat in the middle of the room; surrounded by three walls of bunk beds. Hope was standing at the table, body slumped over as she chomped away at her nails (which was never a good sign), with her head in the monitor, evidently connected to the ship's wifi.

Maria could tell instantly that there was something wrong. "Hope?" Maria gently addressed her as she took a few steps forwards.

Hope, with her eyes still glued to the screen, slowly shook her head as she muttered, "It's true."

Maria's stomach dropped, pretty sure she already understood, as she still asked just to be sure. "What's true?"

Hope removed her fingers from her mouth. "I waspersonallyfunding a terrorist organisation," she choked out, before turning to Maria, now growling, "and for years!" Hope shook her head again, but this time, with vigor, "my grandfather was a benefactor. He set up annual donations to the B.N.U. hiding them behind a fake charity." Hope looked absolutely distraught. "One that I kept alive."

"You didn't know," Maria insisted; needing Hope to understand that it wasn't her fault. "It's not like you created the front and initiated the donations. That's on your grandfather."

"No, it's on me," Hope spat, turning to point at her monitor, "That's my signature." Maria assumed she was indicating to some sort of Funds Transfer form. "I allowed the donations to continue on." She focused back on Maria as she continued, "once I turned eighteen, it wasmyresponsibility to make sure the Van Dyne fortune was used appropriately." She pointed aggressively to herself, "Mine."

"It was purposely disguised to look like a charity to help those in need," Maria tried to calm her down.

"Yeah," Hope started pacing; doing the opposite of calming down as she started revving herself even more up, "but just the sheer fact that I'm so goddamned fucking rich that one point threebillion dollarscould go to them, and it not even be enough for me to look further into it, is morally reprehensible!" Her feet were now carrying her quicker as she stalked the room. "I just equipped a whole rebellion with my pocket change," she practically laughed out in agitation. "I mean, Tony is constantly raked over the coals by the public for his disgusting wealth, yet I'm barely ever mentioned." The volume of her voice climbed, "and my net worth is bigger than his, and that's not even including my liquidated Pym Tech shares!"

Maria, trying to point out her logical downfalls, calmly said, "he made his money manufacturing and distributing weapons. The Stark name has been synonymous with war for years. Unlike the Van Dyne legacy, which has always been known as one of the first pioneers of 20th century American innovation. And also for its social programs." She attempted to draw her point home, "You guys single handedly fund a non-profit hospital, and give more to charity than anyone else in the fortune 500, to this day."

"And now we're the number one funder of a hate group!"

"Hope," she softly said her name in attempts to ground her, but it did nothing. She was off, lost in her own head while she continued.

"And all those social programs and charities --realcharities-- were my mom's doing." She slashed the air in front of her, "I did nothing." Then she pushed her fingers into her temples, forcefully rubbing at her head. "Like sure, when she disappeared, my financial guardian hired a team to continue all her programs on my behalf," she then swung her hand back down, "but I never personally did anything other than make appearances at the fundraisers, and get the board at Pym Tech to annually donate to them."

"Just because you didn't personally plan the parties doesn't mean you helped any less people."

It was clear Hope didn't process a word Maria had just said, as she stopped in her tracks to say, "You know, here I am with the Avengers, telling myself I joined the team to make a difference. But in reality, I make a bigger difference with my wealth. I could be saving more lives with my chequebook than I ever could as The Wasp."

"I'm sorry to burst your bubble with this factual tidbit, but your billions could never buy the galaxy the protection you assured them when you,The Wasp, eliminated a whole race of planet killing alien bugs," Maria informed her, making eye contact with the woman so that she'd pay attention to her this time. "It doesn't have to be one or the other, and you know this." Maria took a step closer to her, "Stop punishing yourself for your grandfather's actions. Actions that he purposely hid from your family."

Maria could see Hope starting to calm down as she dropped her head, sighing, "I should have caught it."

"Do you fault your mom too? Because she didn't catch it either."

Hope crossed her arm over her chest as she started biting her nails again; appearing deep in thought. "I don't know," she finally said.

"Well, if you're not going to blame her, you can't blame yourself either," Maria took another step closer.

Hope deflated her body as she sighed, "I don't like this."

Maria felt sympathetic to her plight as she nodded, "I know."

Hope looked to her with guilt and vulnerability as she asked, "Do you blame me?"

"No," Maria closed the gap between them before wrapping her arms around her. She then lovingly rubbed her back as Hope dropped her weight into her, hugging her back as they were now face-to-face. "Hey," Maria softly said as she pushed hair behind Hope's ear, "the B.N.U. is dismantled. It's done."

"I know," Hope said in a tiny voice.

"And you know what else?"

"What?"

Maria smirked at her, "You're a really good person."

"Am I though?" Hope shook her head, "I mean, besides bisecting the brood queen, what have I actually ever done that would make me a good person who's bettered the world?"

Maria couldn't believe her ears as she asked in horrified confusion, "What are you talking about?" Seeing Hope as nothing but light in a world full of darkness.

"It's just," she sighed before starting, "ever since I was a kid, I was always told I was determined. This unstoppable force. But everything I've ever strived for was to better my own life." She then admitted, "I killed the brood queen because I wanted to prove myself on my first mission. I'm a selfish person." Maria shook her head in total disagreement as Hope continued talking. "You're the one who has this natural instinct to protect people." Hope locked eyes with her, "You're the good person, not me."

Maria, very quickly realised that Hope was looking at herself through the wrong perspective. "I've never once seen you act selfishly while going after what you want," she insisted. "Maybe a smidge entitled, but in an adorable, non-egotistical kinda way," she said in a slight tease. "Also, it's really unfair to dismiss all the good you do just because you get this sick personal pleasure out of it when you do it," she rolled her eyes before smiling at her, holding her gaze where Hope soon softened her expression. "You extinguished a universal threat, and today, you helped all of Africa by taking out a dangerous fascist. But --according to you-- it somehow doesn't count because you enjoyed splitting the brood queen in half and kicking de Ruyter in the balls?" She shook her head, "Now, that's just ridiculous reasoning."

Hope let a small smile slip, like she'd taken Maria's words to heart. "You're ridiculous," she said in a small voice.

"And you're gunna have to come to terms with the fact that your wants align with the wants of the masses. And that automatically makes you a good person just by going after your own desires."

There was a tiny twinkle in Hope's eyes, as she asked, "So you're saying my desires that led me to pursuing you, have bettered the world?"

Maria smiled, "They've definitely bettered my world," before softly pushing her mouth to Hope's.

The kiss was brief, where Hope was the one to pull their lips apart only to wrap her arms around Maria's neck, to hug her closer while resting her head on her shoulder.

Maria squeezed her tighter, holding her securely before asking, "What is it?" After she heard an annoyed huff from Hope.

"Maybe my grandfather did hide this one particular thing. And maybe this wasn't completely my fault." She spoke into Maria's neck, "But I'm sure our money is still harming people in other ways. Ways I've always had knowledge and control over. Like through some of our investments." Maria calmly listened, allowing Hope to work through what was bothering her. "The rich can only exist by the exploitation of the poor. I can't be a good person when my wealth is created and maintained by devaluing the labour of others through wage inequality."

"It's the whole system that's messed up. It's not just simply the rich." Maria felt the need to say. "Our world is complex and interconnected and--"

"No, I know," Hope interrupted her, "It's just." She took a moment before calmly saying, "I think I want to redistribute my wealth. And I don't mean, just write a few cheques. But like, give it all away. Dissolve the exploitive cycle all together."

Maria nodded, "If that's what you feel you need to do, then I support your decision." She wanted Hope to feel comfortable. And if giving away her money is what she needed to do, then Maria would be there for her.

"I need to do this."

"What about your charities and non-profits?" Maria asked for clarification. Knowing that she probably didn't want to leave those high and dry.

"I'll figure something out for them."

"Well, okay then," Maria simply said.

"Does this mean you're gonna leave me after my money's gone?" Hope asked softly.

"I'm composing my marriage proposal to Pepper in my head as we speak," Maria fibbed.

"Shut up, you heartless gold digger," Hope chuckled, which was like heaven to Maria's ears.

But unfortunately, Hope's lighter mood didn't last as she said, "this whole B.N.U. situation is still not okay, though." She then went on to reference the fact that they were two white Americans trying to justify away Hope's huge blunder against the native people of Africa, "and neither of us are really in the position to say otherwise."

"No. But I am," they heard Nakia's voice, where they both naturally split away from each other, to turn to the woman who'd just walked in. "I do apologise, but I overheard you two from the other room while I was cleaning my ring-blades," The beautiful Wakandan gently oscillated her two weapons in her one hand; drawing attention to them.

"Nakia," Hope started so guiltily, "I'm so sorry for--"

But Nakia held her hand up to stop her. Where Hope instantly complied. Nakia then started to explain. "Wealth is a powerful force that has extraordinary impact." She then gracefully took a few steps towards them. "For centuries Wakanda has grown in affluence while the majority of Africa fell to poverty," She then folded her hands in front of her, with the elegance of a queen. "We did nothing. And through our lack of action, millions of people suffered unnecessarily." Her words were weighted, guilt in her eyes. "Our country's riches never saw the other side of our own borders." She shook her head as she locked eyes with Hope, "You, and your ancestors --such as your mother and grandfather--, are no more guilty for the misfortunes of Africa, than myself, and my ancestors. But we are both still culpable, nonetheless. Our wealth has forever indebted us to this continent. And I can only hope that you, like myself, are prepared to pay it back."

"I am," Hope said with conviction.

"Good," Nakia nodded her head. "And as long as I hold any power in Wakandan, I will make certain that you, and your family, will always be welcome in our country," she said, as if to bond Hope's journey of redemption to hers and her nation's; as they searched for the same thing.

"Thank you," Hope said so intensely; never breaking eye contact with the woman.

"Thank you for your assistance today," Nakia bowed while crossing her arms over her chest.

Hope mirrored her actions before Nakia softly smiled as she then turned to leave.

Maria studied Hope for a few seconds, noticing that her exhaustion had intensified. The news about her grandfather's actions, and the impact that it had on her, had clearly taken its toll. Maria then went to the panel at the door, dimming the lights before going to Hope's laptop and shutting it.

"What are you--" Hope muttered before Maria took her by the hand and pulled her into a bunk with her.

Laying down, Maria held Hope in her arms as she gently rested her hand to the side of Hope's head; brushing her thumb back-and-forth over her temple. "You're beat. I can tell."

"I'm very jet lagged, I'll admit," Hope snuggled into Maria, evidently not admitting that what had just happened, was having an impact on her energy level.

Deciding to move on, and not mention her grandfather's mess, Maria simply added, "and you also did two missions, back-to-back." She then lovingly kissed her on the forehead.

"How am I going to pay Africa back?" Hope asked, with a hint of distress in her voice. It was clear that she was taking her conversation with Nakia very seriously, and not ready to drop the subject yet.

Maria pushed her cheek to the spot that she'd just kissed, supporting her need to continue talking about it. "Maybe set up a real charity for Africa this time?" She suggested.

"Yeah, that would be a good start."

"And I can make sure to involve you in all the S.H.I.E.L.D. missions that take place here, if you'd like?"

"Yes. Thank you." Hope gently nodded in Maria's grasp before deeply sighing; finally seeming to be calming down.

They laid there for a little while in silence where Maria then moved to push her lips to her forehead, once again, kissing her before muttering into her skin, "I missed you." In that moment, realising how empty she often felt when Hope wasn't there in her arms.

"I missed you too," Hope responded with low energy, yet it still came across as genuine. Evidently, she was quickly shutting down. Which was understandable and exactly what Maria had wanted.

"Now, go to sleep, my love" Maria gently coaxed her.

"But aren't we gonna be back in Wakanda soon?" She muttered. Clearly already falling into a slumber.

"Don't worry, I'll carry you off the ship when we get there," she joked.

Hope made a funny sound like her body was trying to giggle but it was too tired to. "Okay," she then barely got out.

It didn't take long until Hope's breathing became slow and heavy. At that time, Maria pulled her head back to look at her. She couldn't help but smile at her beautiful, peaceful face as she realised that this was the first time she'd truly felt secure in their relationship. Like it really was the two of them against the world, ready to take on anything, and nothing was ever going to split them up or stop them. She'd help Hope through her difficult times, just like Hope had helped her. Because that's what they did for each other.


	30. Thirtieth

Maria and Janet were on a transport flight from Africa, back to America. Maria had hung back a fortnight in Birnin Zana as a S.H.I.E.L.D. liaison to the Wakandan military, where Janet was there as an unofficial U.S. ambassador, with heavy ties to S.H.I.E.L.D., as an observer of the pan-African council. Both of their presences were in regards to the B.N.U. situation.

Janet had quickly earned favour with the Wakandan royals. They accepted her --most likely-- due to her respecting nature; she didn't try to force her western opinions onto anyone. She was just there as intercontinental and interagency support.

Maria was truly grateful for Janet's African integration. She made S.H.I.E.L.D.'s alliance with the continent much stronger.

After the mission where they'd secured de Ruyter and the impundulu, the rest of the Avengers had flown back to the U.S.A. which included Hope. Maria was sad to see her go, they barely even had a chance to say goodbye before she had to ship back out. Maria was glad, however, that she was going to be on the same continent as her again.

Maria was quickly briefed and familiarised with the Wakandan aircraft before they left the country. Although, there really wasn't much piloting she needed to on their way back. It was a ship that could be fully-automated and often was. She only took it off autopilot so that she could verse herself with it for her own curiosity. She even let Janet take the controls for a little while. They were the only two aboard so they could take some liberties and try out some evasive manoeuvres to add a little fun to their trip.

Janet had gotten out of the pilot seat allowing Maria to turn back on the autopilot; she randomly started patting down her body in a bit of a frenzy, like she was trying to find something, "Wait," she slapped her upper thighs, "did I forget my--" she reached down to her jacket that was sitting on the nearby bulkhead-bench, "Ah," she pulled her mobile out of her coat pocket. "Here it is!" she held it up in triumph. "I thought I forgot the most important thing I own in Wakandan."

"Your phone?" Maria asked in bewilderment as to why she held that particular object to such high importance. "What are you, a millennial? Can't go a day without checking your social media?" She joked, not entirely sure if she'd understand the reference to the exaggerated societal bashing of her generation by people of Janet's generation, in regards to technology dependency.

"Funny," she seemed to have understood her intent, "but, unfortunately, no. I'm no longer a youthful hip-chick such as yourself."

Maria had to bite down a chuckle towards Janet's cute, but dated, slang. "Could've fooled me. That quantum realm must do wonders for the skin." She fully meant what she'd said. Janet was absolutely radiant for her age.

"Thank you, pumpkin. You're too gracious," she lovingly smiled at her. "No but, honestly, the only reason I covet my phone is because I have family photos on it. And I like to always have them with me."

"That's actually really sweet." Maria was always taken by all the love Janet had in her heart.

"Yeah, when I finally got back home to this realm, I scavenged photo albums, data CDs, hard drives, and even the internet; gathering up as many pictures as I could of the family. Specifically of Hope." She said with a hint of sadness, "I missed so much of her growing up, and wanted to keep those lost years with me."

Maria's interest peaked as she excitedly asked, "You have pictures of Hope?"

Janet chuckled, delighted by her question, "yes, come sit with me. I'll show you," she gestured to the bench that her jacket was laying on.

As Janet sat down and started going through her phone, Maria quickly checked the controls to make sure the course and autopilot was still correct, before finding her seat right next to her.

Janet pushed her body in close as she handed Maria her phone, so that she could go through them on her own while the older woman could still see them.

The first picture Maria saw was of Janet holding baby Hope. Hope looked like any normal squishy faced infant, and young Janet looked so much like Hope now. "That was our first photo together," Janet said, leaning in closer to Maria.

"Hope looks so much like you."

"Yeah, she got my looks, and Hank's brains."

"His stubbornness too," Maria grinned, making Janet giggle.

"This is very true."

Maria proceeded to swipe through the pictures on her phone, stopping on one with great interest and complete awe. She was sure it was Hope's prom photo. It was a headshot of her softly smiling, with her hair in ringlets, and the freckles on her face were more pronounced. Making Maria think she'd been still living at the beach with her surfboard during that time, catching a lot of sun. "Wow," Maria gawked, "she really is the most beautiful person ever. Even as a teenager. She looks like a literal angel here."

"She sure does," Janet's voice was filled with pride. "But I'm sure you were just as beautiful at that age too."

"Yeah, right," Maria scoffed. "I was this tall, awkward, gangly kid. My neighbour used to tease me about it. He called me lanky-spanky."

"Oh, that's not very nice," Janet said in a defensive mom-voice. "Was he a boy from school?"

"No," Maria laughed while shaking her head. "He was an adult. And probably my favourite one in the world at the time." Suddenly the memory of the only grownup she respected as a kid, entered her mind. "He loved that I was long and skinny, I could crawl under the car, and get my arm far down into the engine when he couldn't reach something in there." Janet looked to her in confusion. "He was building a car," Maria explained, "so after school, we'd work on it together."

"Oh. That sounds like fun," her eyes lit up.

"Yeah, until we got to the carburetor," Maria remembered those exasperating three months. "That whole situation was a nightmare."

"What kind of car was it?"

"A 1961 Dodge Lancer."

"Did you guys ever finish it?"

"We did," Maria softly smiled, "He even gave it to me for my sixteenth birthday."

"Oh. Wow. That was generous of him."

"Yeah, extremely." To this day, Maria still couldn't believe that he'd done that. Him and his wife were Colombian immigrants with little to their names. But that never stopped them from showing kindness and charity in their neighbourhood. Even if it financially put them back.

"Whatever happened to the car? Do you still have it?"

"I do. It's parked at a base in D.C."

"Still runs?"

"Absolutely," Maria nearly took her question as an insult.

"Yeah, I guess that was a silly question." Janet lovingly nudged Maria's body with her own, "of course you'd keep it up and running. I'd guess it's probably in pristine condition too."

"Oh, It is," Maria proudly said, looking to Janet.

"Are you still in contact with your neighbour?"

"Ah," Maria dropped her head, fixing her eyes on Hope's photo, "No. He died about ten years ago." Maria was lucky enough to see him a few years before his passing. She made a point to stop by there when she had enough money to pay off their mortgage. It was the least she could do after all they'd done for her over the years.

"Oh. I'm sorry," Janet squeezed her arm in comfort before Maria started swiping through more photos. When seeing one of little Hope on the back of a pony, decked out in proper riding attire, Maria asked, "Hope used to ride horses?"

Janet nodded, "for a very short period. She didn't really care for it. And I remember --at that time-- she was far too busy begging us to enroll her in a karate class instead."

Maria chuckled, "of course she was."

"Yeah, but she didn't end up doing that for very long either." She sighed, "Hank pulled her out, to her dismay." She then said in slight amusement, "I still remember that temper tantrum. She broke a very expensive vase."

"Really?" Maria never had the luxury of having a temper tantrum, her father would have shut that down real quick. Which then made her wonder if Hope had only had them when Hank wasn't around, since he had anger issues just like her own father.

"Yeah. But she soon enough grew out of those fits. They tapered off around the age of seven."

"Why did Hank pull her out of karate though?"

"Because he saw how much she wanted to be like us. And he feared for her safety." She shook her head, "he never wanted her to be an Avenger or join S.H.I.E.L.D.."

"I can't say I'm completely devoid of that feeling either when it comes to her dangerous career choice," Maria still didn't love that Hope was going into unsafe situations and putting herself at risk.

"You and me both," Janet agreed. "But I do have it worse. Because, I not only have to worry about her, but I have to worry about you too," she gave her a loving smirk, which sent a warm tingle up her neck. She'd never had anyone worry about her like that before.

Maria then looked down to the phone, needing to change the subject. "Is it alright if I send some of these pictures to myself?"

"Of course. She's your little vase-smashing rascal too." Maria, very excitedly, proceeded to send herself nearly all of them as Janet asked her, "do you have any photos of your childhood? I'd sure love to see you as this, lacky-spanky you speak of."

"Um," Maria instantly thought of the photo that she kept so private. The one she hadn't shown to anyone. "I just have one," she said in slight hesitation, but, over all, she felt safe in showing it to her. She then gave Janet's phone back to her before pulling out her own cell, searching the cloud for the photo; quickly locating it.

She gently passed Janet her phone, the picture of her teenaged self in denim dungaree shorts holding her kid brother in her arms, displayed on the scene. Janet instantly gushed, "Oh, look at you, you're absolutely precious," she stared at it a little longer, "And you don't look like an awkward gangly kid, you look like a runway model or one of those skinny girls you see in Teen Vogue." Maria turned to look at Janet's face, who was still fixated on the photo, with a heartwarming smile on. "Is this your brother?"

Maria looked back down, "Yeah," fixing her eyes on him smiling up at her former self.

"Hope told me about him. Not that she said much, just that he passed."

"Yeah," Maria swallowed hard, trying her best to keep her composure. She'd never really gotten over his death, even all these years later.

"He's looking at you with such love in his eyes. You two must've been close."

A bittersweet memory came to her as she smiled, "he used to always say he wished I was his real mom."

"I'll bet," she said in a way that led Maria to believe that she knew about his birth mother.

"I take it Hope told you about her too?"

"Your step-mother? Yes." Maria felt her tense up beside her, "And I'd like to say, I hope to never meet her. Because --as much as I don't normally condone violence unless it's absolutely necessary-- I would, indeed, find it absolutely necessary to clean her clock." Maria couldn't help but lightly chuckle at her words. "Because nobody treats my daughter like that. And that's right, I saidmydaughter. I've rightfully confiscated you from her. I'm your mother now, like I've said before," she insisted with fervor, before she gently pushed a piece of Maria's hair behind her ear. The action, along with her ownership of her, almost making her breakdown. "And that's why I've been twisting Hope's arm to get information out of her about you. A parent must know about their children." Janet then guiltily smirked at her with a plea in her eyes, "also, please don't be mad at her for telling me these things. I know she hasn't told anyone else about this stuff."

"I'm not mad." Maria had seen it like how the woman had described it herself: Janet was an extension of Hope. So there wasn't much that Hope could know about her, that Janet couldn't know too.

"Good," she seemed relieved that she wasn't angry with Hope. "Also," Janet eyed her playfully, "I hope you realise I'm now sending this photo to myself," she waved Maria's phone in the air, before proceeding to do as she said, "I have to add it to the digital family album."

Maria had to hold back happy tears, "Kai would've loved to be a part of your family."

"Kai," she asked so tenderly, "that's your brother's name?"

"Yeah."

"Well he's part of the Van Dyne clan now," she firmly nodded as she continued to look at the photo that she'd just sent herself. "He looks like an excellent addition. He's very cute."

"Very funny too," Maria remembered all the times that he had made her laugh.

Janet handed Maria her phone back before she looked at her, studying her face in awe. "I'm so proud of you," she softly said, her eyes now glossy.

"What?" Maria's voice was so small. The question barely came out.

"You grew up amongst tragedy. More than most experience in a lifetime," she hugged Maria's one arm, squeezing her limb in close. "And yet, you came out of it wanting to protect people. Not wanting them to suffer like you have had to." she blinked a few times, trying to dry her eyes before they ran over with tears. "So many people try to pass their pain on to others, but not you." Now Maria had to fight off tears herself. "And now here you are, Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Guardian to all mankind."

"Pft," Maria sheepishly pushed away her beautiful comment, not able to emotionally handle it. "I'm definitely not a guardian to all mankind."

"Hey, you better not be trying to dismiss my complement, young lady," She gave her a stern look of warning.

"No, ma'am," Maria conceded, resulting in Janet breaking into a beautiful grin.

Janet then moved her arms to wrap them around Maria's entire body, giving her a proper side hug. "I'm so glad Hope found you and brought you into our lives," she then kissed Maria's cheek, where the young woman couldn't help but bask in Janet's motherly love.

"For the record," Maria insisted on correcting her, "I was the one who found her."

"That's right, you were stalking her."

"Okay," Maria chuckled, "Hope's not allowed to talk about me anymore. I don't like her telling of events."

Janet rocked Maria's body back and forth as she giggled, "no, don't say that! I need my informant. Even if she embellishes a little."

Suddenly they were interrupted by Maria's phone ringing. It was Fury, where Maria had an obligation to see to it; standing up, giving herself a little privacy, she answered the phone while walking to the back of the ship; returning to business.

For the rest of their trip, Maria was consumed with work. Then once they touched down in America, Maria and Janet had parted ways, both having different destinations and business to attend to.

* * *

Hope rounded the corner, shooting two hostiles in their chest packs before running down the short hallway past a few closed doors on her left as she took a right into a large break-room area, shooting another man in his shoulder sensor before knocking a table over; ducking behind it for cover. There was one more hostile in the room who was trying to shoot her with his laser gun. Unlike their large outdoor drills where they often used beanbag guns, in indoor training they almost exclusively used highly accurate laser weapons.

She looked to the side, noticing a shiny black refrigerator, that was surprisingly reflective as she could see the shooter in it. Knowing that laser beams bounce off mirrors, Hope decided to test out if the appliance was reflective enough to keep the photons in a tight pathway, without them being disbursed, as she lined up her target, behind the safety of her cover. Aiming at the man's shoulder sensor, she took her shot. To her satisfaction, his pack lit up red, where she was quick to break cover and continue on.

The training building that she was sweeping through was a stand-alone structure in a field, made to mimic the inside of an office building. She knew that her next objective was to breach through the door at the end of the hallway, but as she was about to make her way out of the room, she noticed that there was a gap between the cafeteria wall and the ceiling. She assumed that because the building was just a mock-up, they must not have bothered to connect up the two structures, creating a space a little bigger than a foot in hight.

Thinking like a woman who was used to being small as a bug, and having wings, she used that to her advantage; knowing that there'd be men waiting for her on the other side of the door, and she wasn't one who always used traditional methods of entry.

Hope then quickly hopped on top of the counter, next to the wall, using the fridge to boost her all the way up, where she squeezed her body through the gap, rolling herself over onto the other side.

Landing rather lightly, she found herself in an empty boardroom. She quietly opened the door, seeing three men outside of it, all facing the other direction. She wasted no time in stepping out, easily shooting two of them in the back, where she had to run up and flip the third one over onto his behind before shooting him in the chest.

Suddenly a bunch of lights on the ceiling flashed green, along with the vests that they were all wearing, including Hope's, indicating that the drill was over, and she'd successfully taken out all her enemies.

She helped the man up, that she'd just thrown down. "Sorry, Dan," she apologised.

"You know, you say that a lot to me," the young agent rubbed his lower back, while not looking terribly pleased with her. "I need to get reassigned," he gripped under his breath while walking away from her and his other two teammates.

Looking at the other men, they simply shrugged their shoulders at her, before Hope holstered her weapon and went to exit the structure, which led out to a large outdoor tarmac.

Walking outside, she saw Jason, Roz, and Sharon, who was next to a large dolly that had three separate monitors set up on it, all displaying different areas of the training space.

"What the hell was that? Sharon snapped at her, "You were supposed to breach the other section by going through the doors. You deviated without authorisation."

"Yeah, but I saw an opportunity to enter the next one while the enemy was off guard," she defended her actions, specifically because they led to a successful outcome, "It was a snap judgment call."

"You hopped over a wall!" Sharon gawked, throwing her hand aggressively out to her side.

Hope was finding her constant disapproval just plain annoying at this point. "You said our objective was to secure the building," she put her hand on her hip as she challenged her, "Are we not supposed to do that using any means necessary?"

"You were supposed to wait for my go-ahead. And that's not even mentioning your little cheat thing with the whole "shooting the fridge" trick." She furrowed her brow, glaring at her as she spat, "This isn't the Avengers. You don't get to run around with the Hulk and do whatever the hell you want. Agents follow strict orders and guidelines. And if you can't do that, then you'll never join the ranks."

Hope couldn't help it, Sharon's words were so ironic that she found them hilarious. "Okay," she said, biting down a laugh.

She could see the confusion on Sharon's face as she seemed taken aback. "Find something funny, Van Dyne?" She crossed her arms.

"It's just," Hope decided to be bold as Natasha's and Maria's words echoed in her head, "if they already let one wild, unbroken horse into the ranks, I'm sure they'll let in another one." She doubled down as she said with inflated confidence, "You already set a precedent for me."

Hope heard a gasp from Roz, who was now next to her, before she muttered under she breath, so only Hope would hear her, "wutare you doing?"

But Hope ignored the young woman as she held her gaze with Sharon, both glaring each other down. Finally, after a few intense seconds, the corners of Sharon's mouth tugged upwards in an amused smirk, like she'd fully known which of her asshole friends had regurgitated that to her, before she turned to Roz, "Okay, Solomon, you're up!"

Hope had to bite down another smile as she looked to Roz, who was shaking her head at her in shocked confusion. "Good luck," Hope said, finally letting her smile slip, as she innocently encouraged her teammate on her drill.

Roz took her turn, followed by Jason, where they individually cleared through the building. Roz was the only one needing a second try to get through successfully. Once they all completed their assignment they went straight off to their last session of the day. Which was target practice at the shooting range with Gunnery Sergeant Mackenzie, a weapons specialist out of the Marines. It was common for the Sergeant to independently run their riflery classes. Which Hope was always grateful for, since they were a welcomed respite from Sharon's constant critical nature towards her. Especially with the fact that Hope wasn't exactly an amazing marksman, not that she was necessarily bad either. But it still would've been fresh fodder for Sharon to criticize her about it.

Once they were finished up with target practice, the three agents-in-training exited the indoor range, into the corridor that connected the hanger-like-structure to the main building.

As they were walking, Hope checked her phone to see if she'd received any messages. Seeing one in particular, that nearly made her giggle, Roz leaned into her, bumping into her shoulder. "You're smiling. Is it your girlfriend again?"

"No. I talked to her yesterday," Hope simply informed her, loving how Maria was constantly checking in with her now. Especially in regards to how she was handling the emotional impact of her family's funding misconduct. "This is a text from Scott and Cassie." She turned her phone around, playing the short, seven second video, that they sent to her, for Roz to see. "Look at the circuit she made with her dad." They'd taken the contraption from the game 'Mousetrap', and automated it for Cassie's science project. The video was of their work in action.

"Okay, that's actually pretty cool," Roz nodded in approval right before she pressed on. "What did your girlfriend say yesterday?"

Hope narrowed her eyes at the young woman as she said, "I see why S.H.I.E.L.D. agent intrigued you as a career choice, because you're sure interested in gathering intel."

"You're the one who shrouds her in mystery," Roz shot back, "which is why I'm intrigued in the first place. Like, I don't even know her name. Though, I did see you have her as "The Cold Bitch" in your contacts."

"You were looking at my phone?" She was instantly a little annoyed with her, and hoped she didn't see anything of importance.

"I caught a glimpse, okay," she said innocently, where Hope and Jason shared a look of skepticism, "Also, you were all mad at her 'cause she was ignoring you, then you came back from your Avengers mission all happy, like during that time she reanimated herself from the dead, and is now calling you all the time." The trio continued to the end of the hallway, "And, was that a coincidence? Did you see her on your mission? Does she work for S.H.I.E.L.D. or some other intelligence agency?

"Roz, you're spiraling," Jason said, reaching for the door, opening it for the ladies.

"I'm just asking questions." They all stepped through, "Aren't you curious about her?" Roz turned to Jason.

But before Jason could reply, the trio's attention was all ripped away from their conversation as they noticed Janet, standing a little ways away.

"Mom?"

She smiled, "Hey, Jellybean," as she approached her daughter.

"What are you doing here," Hope hurried over to meet her halfway, giving her a welcoming hug.

"I decided to stop by and visit you while on my way home from Wakanda," she pulled away to look at her daughter. "Fury granted me clearance so I'd be able to see this place."

"It's like you're fully integrated back into the agency."

"It's starting to feel that way," she said in a manner where Hope could tell that she was enjoying it. Her mother was always one who was driven to help people, and S.H.I.E.L.D. was a place where she could do that.

Turning to see her companions slowly approaching, Hope quickly made introductions. "Mom, these are my classmates, Roz and Jason."

Roz's eyes lit up as she gushed, "It's an honour to meet you, Mrs. Van Dyne, first female superhero and founder of The Avengers."

Janet's face split into a grin, "Well, I can't say I've been called by that lengthy title, outside of a women's empowerment seminar back in the eighties."

Roz nodded enthusiastically, "Ma'am, if I were you, I'd put that title on a bumper sticker, and cruise around town with it, while waving out the window at the people."

Janet chuckled, "You're funny."

Jason then stepped up, gently taking Janet's hand in his own, as he smiled, "And I feel as if I should be in absolute awe of meeting you, the first female superhero, as well --which, don't get me wrong, I still am-- But, honestly, I'm more delighted to be meeting you, as Hope's mother." He then kissed the top of her hand, in a chivalrous manner. "You have such a wonderful daughter. Very strong and smart, individual." He then gently let go of her hand.

"Oh my god, you really can't turn it off, can you?" Roz jabbed the man with her elbow before looking back to Janet. "Don't mind him. He once fell into a charm school as a kid and couldn't get out. Took his family years to find him, but once they did, it was too late. The damage was already done."

Janet held her smile as she spoke to Roz, "Charm is never a bad thing." She then looked back and forth between them, "and it's nice to meet the both of you."

Jason bowed his head to her before turning to the young woman, "Okay, Roz," he then rested his hands on top of her shoulders, patting them as he spoke, "why don't we let Hope catch up with her mother here. And you can show me that --supposed-- eagle's nest you think you saw," he started gently leading her down the hallway.

"It is an eagle's nest. I googled it," she retorted back at him.

"I just don't think an eagle would set up a nest so low," he then looked back to Janet as they reached the exit, just a little ways away from the Van Dynes, "It was very nice meeting you."

"Yeah," Roz called out as Jason nearly pushed her out the door, "I'm gonna brag to all my academy friends about this!" And with that, they were both gone.

Janet chuckled while shaking her head at the duo, seemingly finding them just as entertaining as Hope did.

"Want a tour of the place?" Hope offered, assuming she hadn't seen much of the grounds yet, since her suitcase was sitting off to the side of them.

"Please," she happily nodded.

Hope grabbed the handle of her mother's bag, wheeling it over to the supply closet next to them. "Your stuff should be fine in here for the time being," she said while slipping it inside. She knew that no one would steal her things if they left it out, but she was concerned with it triggering an alert. There suddenly being a suspicious bag inside a restricted facility might cause an incident.

She then guided them down the hall, opposite the direction of the shooting range. "So, how did it go with the pitch?" Hope asked, dying to know since she hadn't gotten an update on it yet.

"Great. Romy and I are working together on a foundation. I'm thinking of starting with three billion, then we'll go from there." Janet hooked her arm around Hope's, "Is that alright with you?"

"Yes. I want it all gone," Hope said, desperately needing to rid herself of her family's dirty money.

"I know you do, but it's going to be a slow process," Janet said sympathetically. "We want to make sure we're actually supporting the people by uplifting their economies, and not ruining them by throwing money at them without any thought.

"Yes, I get that," Hope huffed in annoyance as to how long the process was going to take.

"And we're still going to have a huge chunk of our wealth through our charitable umbrella organisation."

"That's fine. As long as it's no longer our family trust, growing from stocks of all these sketchy companies." She shook her head, "That's all I want." Hope was at least glad to learn that their personal fortune was being shifted to a non-profit, only to be dispensed to charities, and charities alone.

"Grandfather wasn't your fault," Janet said softly, responding to Hope's overall agitated tone. "I'm the one who should've caught that."

Hope really wasn't interested in rehashing the blame conversation with her mother again. It had gone nowhere the first time, with Janet taking the news just about as well as Hope had; bearing all the responsibility onto herself.

To avoid a repeat conversation, Hope pushed on. "Who's Romy?" She recalled back to the name that her mother had previously said.

"Ah, Queen Mother Ramonda."

A little surprised, Hope asked, "You have a nickname for the King of Wakanda's mother?"

"She calls me Ndovu," Janet grinned.

"Ndovu?"

"Yeah, apparently it means 'ivory' in Swahili."

"You guys have really gotten close there." Hope smiled, happy that her mother had made a new friend. Janet had been so disconnected from her old social circles. For a while, the only people she saw were herself, Hank, and, on occasion, Scott's family.

"Oh, I love that woman," She beamed, just as Hope let go of her mother's arm to push the food-hall door open, to show her inside. "She gave me an apartment in Birnin Zana, and keeps insisting I just move there."

"Yeah, I'm sure dad would love that," Hope said sarcastically. "This is the cafeteria," she waved at the large empty room, filled with dining tables.

"It'd take awhile for your father to notice I wasn't around," she poked her head in to look at the space, "He's been living at the lab."

"New project?" Hope closed the door, not bothering to go inside since the place was pretty self-explanatory.

"Ah," Janet awkwardly dropped her head, "not exactly." She started walking back down the hallway again.

"Oh," Hope murmured softly; realising that she didn't mean figuratively, "living as in…"

"Yeah."

"H-- how long?" Hope gently asked, processing the new information as she caught up with her mother's slow pace, falling back in line beside her.

"He moved in there shortly after you left for training," Hope slowly nodded her head in understanding. "We just needed a break is all."

"You both did? Or just you?" Hope was full of skepticism that the feeling was mutual between them.

"I… ah," she fidgeted with the ends of her long hair.

"Mom, it's okay," Hope insisted.

Janet sighed, now ready to be direct. "He's a difficult man. I wanted some space." She shook her head, "Honestly, I'm probably overreacting."

"Don't," Hope firmly demanded.

"Don't what?"

"Don't try to minimize your feelings," Hope slid her arm around her mother's, linking them once again. "Whatever they are, you're not wrong in having them." They rounded the corner, "It's time for you to finally acknowledge all the pain he's put you through over the years."

"He never gave up on me though. He remained faithful, and spent years trying to find me," she tried justifying her allegiance to him.

"You don't owe him anything for that."

"Yeah…" She huffed, "but why do I feel like I do?"

"Because he's a manipulator. Always has been."

Janet looked to her as she tried to explain, "I know it often looked like he was the bad guy, but It was never just him. I participated. I allowed a lot of it to happen."

Appalled by what she'd just heard, Hope gawked, "You allowed him to hit you?" For the first time, Hope confronted her mother about the physical abuse that she'd gone through.

"I stayed," Janet halted in her tracks, making Hope stop along with her. "I should've taken you and gotten us out." She unwound their arms only for Janet to take ahold of Hope's forearms in her grasp, facing her directly on. "You never should've been in that home, especially after he turned violent."

"You were just trying to survive. You didn't want to rock the, already rickety, boat. It's common for victims to stay in those circumstances."

"I had a responsibility to you as a mother," she squeezed her arms. "I let my fear stop me from doing what should have been done."

"It's not like he would've just let us go."

She took a moment before nodding, "That's probably true." She let go of Hope's arms, "He did --however-- let me leave this time." She cocked her head to the side, correcting herself, "or --more accurately-- he himself volunteered to go when I said I wanted to."

Raising a brow, Hope asked, "and he did this in understanding while he calmly packed his bags?"

Janet bit her lip before admitting, "There were some words exchanged at a very high volume, before he punched a hole in the wall on his way out."

"Uh huh," Hope muttered dryly, not surprised in the slightest.

"But it was different," she insisted. "This time I didn't fear for my safety." Janet then heavily sighed, "Maybe we can fix our marriage. He definitely isn't as bad as he used to be. He really has changed for the better."

Remembering something she'd heard before, that had always stuck with her, Hope said, "If you water down a pot of soup that's been poisoned, and then eat a bowl of it, you might not die, but you're still gonna get sick."

"And what if I can boil the poison out?" She asked in such a vulnerable voice.

"How?" Hope dropped her head to her shoulder, matching her soft voice, "by lighting yourself on fire to heat the pot?"

Janet looked to her in recognition and understanding before smirking at her, "When did you get so wise?" She reached for her face, cupping her cheek.

"Trust me, I'm not. I'm just parroting what San Francisco's finest therapists have told me over the years in regards to Dad." Janet, pulled away from Hope, protectively crossing her arms over her stomach as she began to tear up. "What is it?" Hope asked in alarm.

"I not only failed to take you away from him, but I abandoned you with him." she then wiped her eyes with her finger tips, "You were just a child."

"Mom," Hope reached out, taking a hold of her upper arms in support. Hating how she was taking on the blame of her father. It was Hank who fucked up, not her.

Shaking her head, with pure terror in her eyes, Janet began, "tell me he never--"

"No," Hope cut her off, "he never laid a hand on me," she then let go of her mother.

"Oh, thank heavens," she sighed in relief. "I mean, I didn't think he would. You've always been the most precious thing in his life." She studied Hope's face, "not that those feelings change the emotional pain he's clearly inflicted on you."

"Mom, it's okay. I'm okay. Don't worry about me," Hope hooked her arm around Janet's, starting them forwards again. "It's time for you to move on from the past," she looked to the side as she spoke, studying her mother, "And if that means Dad is part of the past that you need to move on from, then so be it."

"He's your father. I can't exactly just leave him in the past, even if I wanted to. He'll always be a part of my life in some way or another."

"Well you can at least choose the way you want him to be there."

Janet eyed her as she said, "You're responding in a way I really wasn't expecting."

"Did you think I'd be begging for you guys to stay together forever?" Hope was --after all-- the one who was estranged from her father for years, per her choice. And even though she was glad that the two of them were slowly coming together again, she'd never have the expectation for her mother to do the same.

"Begging? No," she shook her head. "I don't know, I guess I thought you'd just be a little more bothered by the situation."

"But instead I'm on the verge of calling up the firm to start drawing up your divorce papers."

"Yeah."

"Well, I just want you to be happy. And I know Dad's been the source of a lot of unhappiness in your life." She said adamantly, "You deserve better."

"I really lucked out on having you as a daughter," she stopped them so that she could kiss Hope's forehead. "I never could've imagined how spectacular of a woman you'd end up growing into."

"Well," Hope started walking away, towards the end of the hall, "I had a great role model."

"You better be talking about your amazingly radiant mother."

Hope turned around to look at her, "Nanny Curtiss, actually." She flashed a cheeky grin, naming the governess who Hope couldn't stand. Lucky, they only had her for a year, in the end, deciding that Hope didn't need one.

Both of them giggled at Hope's comment, but instead of Janet making her way to Hope, who was about to show her what was behind the next set of doors, she kept still in her place, bringing her focus down to her hand. She then pulled a ring off her finger, looking up to meet Hope's gaze. "I think it's long overdue you have this," she held out the piece of jewellery. "I always meant to give it to you on your eighteenth birthday."

Hope slowly took a few steps to her, taking the item while examining it. "Grandma's ring," she softly smirked, while looking over the white gold band, lined with four little diamonds, with a large sapphire in the centre of it.

Hope slipped it on. "How does it fit?" Janet asked.

"Perfectly," she smiled, always loving the family ring. Hope never knew her matriarchal grandmother, but her mom would tell her stories of her kindness. Hope had always assumed that that's where Janet had gotten her big heart from.

"Good." Hope could hear the smile on her mother's voice that sounded pleased that the heirloom was the appropriate size for her, as she was still busy admiring it on her finger. "And then, when the time comes, you can pass it down to your daughter too."

Her mother's words instantly squelched her happy mood. "Mom," Hope looked up to her, just wanting to get the idea of grandchildren out of her head before it had time to marinate there, "Maria and I aren't having kids. We already discussed it."

"But you could!" Janet's eyes brightened in excitement. "Have you heard of I.V.G.? In vitro gametogenesis?"

Hope, already knowing that whatever type of in vitro procedure it was, was irrelevant since Maria and her were already decided, and both didn't want anything to do with pregnancy. "No, but--"

"They can make both sperm and eggs out of skin cells," she continued with the same fervor. "You and Maria could have a biological daughter! They're in the testing phase now. But we have the influence and connections to get you guys into the trials."

A biological daughter?God, this was hitting too close to her trauma now. Hope tried to take a calming breath, but it wasn't helping. "Mom, please stop," she begged her.

"Jellybean," she assured her, "I know kids might not be on your mind right now, but --I promise you-- you'll get there," she nodded, clearly wanting her to follow the path that she had, "And once you're holding your little baby girl in your arms, you'll never regret your decision of becoming a mother."

Suddenly, the image of her five-month-old daughter flashed into her mind's eye. Her tiny body, that was no bigger than her hand, laying still across her one arm. Her mother had no idea what she was talking about, and what Hope would, and would not, regret. "I said, stop! Okay?" She snapped. "Do you not hear?"

"I-- I'm sorry," Janet stammered in complete confusion to Hope's outburst, "I didn't--"

"It's okay," Hope interrupted her. Feeling a little guilty on how harshly she sounded, yet still couldn't seem to drop the edge in her voice. "Let's just change the subject."

"I didn't mean to upset you. I just wanted you to know about--"

"I said, it's fine," again, her tone came harsher than she'd wished for it. "Through here's the gym," she turned, taking a few strides to the doors, before aggressively bursting them open to then walk through.

There, in the large space, Hope was annoyed to find Sharon, dragging a mat to the centre of the floor. Clearly setting up for tomorrow's sparring sessions. Hope angrily grunted under her breath to the sight of the woman in front of her, "you gotta be kidding me." In no way was she emotionally sound to deal with the agent in that moment.

Sharon looked up and caught her gaze, giving her a curious look, like she could sense something was up with her, before her attention shifted to the other woman, entering the gymnasium. "Ah, Mrs. Van Dyne," she took a few steps closer to the both of them. "I was told you'd been received here, and were somewhere on the premises," she said, not so much in a welcoming tone, yet not in a hostile one either. Like she was appraised of the situation, and didn't give it much thought beyond that.

"Ah, mom, yeah," Hope awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck. "This is Agent Carter, my instructor," she then gestured at her, now knowing that her mother had the security clearance to know the farm employees by name.

"Little Sharon Carter, is that really you?" Janet's confusion over Hope's mood was now, evidently, superseded by Sharon's presence. "My, you've grown," She walked right over to her, examining her closer, "and you look so much like your father."

"Yeah, I guess you would've known him. Probably knew most of my family," Sharon nodded, where Hope was now confused as to who the agent was in relation to her mother. "I remember "the Pyms" coming up a few times in conversation during my childhood."

"Yes, and now look at you," Janet grinned while glancing back and forth between the two of them, "and here with Hope too. You two troublemakers, back together, after all these years apart."

"Huh?" Sharon cocked her head to the side.

"Back together?" Hope repeated in puzzlement.

"Yes. Don't you guys remember?" Janet chuckled as her memories overtook her, "you two must've been like six and seven --no-- six and eight," she corrected herself. "Yes, Hope you're two years older," she pointed at her daughter before directing her attention solely onto Sharon. "Yeah, your Aunt Peggy had you in San Francisco," Hope now comprehending their families' connection. Sharon wasthatCarter, "--And for the life of me I don't remember why-- but she and Hank ended up having business to attend to while you guys were in town, so you spent the whole day at our house with Hope and myself." Janet then laughed, shaking her head, "you two were little menaces together. You guys slid down the stairs in a laundry hamper!" Hope then fixed her gaze onto Sharon, who had looked to her, like they were both trying to see the past in the other's face. The crazy thing was, Hope did see it. How could she have missed it before? "Thank heavens neither of you were seriously injured by that," Janet continued on about their sliding adventure, "You flew into the wall, even knocked down--"

"A picture," Sharon flatly said, as if her memories were flooding back like Hope's were. "It almost fell on my head."

"But I caught it," Hope gave her a look, like she should be thanking her that her head didn't get bashed in.

"Don't look so smug," Sharon crossed her arms over her chest, "It never would've fallen on my head in the first place if it wasn't for your suggestion to go basket sledding."

Hope gawked, throwing her hand to her chest, "I recall only suggesting it becauseyouwanted to go down on my old rocking horse."

"You what?" Janet asked in shock.

Sharon smirked at the older woman, "In my defense, I was six."

"Well, regardless of your young mischievousness," Janet smiled, "I enjoyed having you running about our home with Hope, all those years ago." Then her mother shifted her eyes inconspicuously to Hope, "makes one miss having young ones around."

Hope gawked at her mother's audacity, as she felt her blood boiling in reaction to the, not so subtle, comment. She stared into the side of her mother's head, where Janet had her eyes, now, glued onto Sharon.

"I think they might have a medical procedure for that," Sharon casually said to Janet.

"For what?" The older woman shook her head in confusion.

"Older women having children," Shanon simply said, which took Hope aback. "Like, even if they didn't freeze their eggs. Something to do with making new eggs out of other cells in the body or something." she shrugged, "to be perfectly honest, I don't know much about it, just something I overheard once." Hope couldn't believe it. Sharon definitely overheardtheirconversation, but was weaponising it against her mother and not her. "But, that's obviously your business, and not mine or anyone else's. Deciding to have children, or to not have children, is a highly personal thing," Sharon pressed, yet never looked to Hope.

Janet was smart and seemed to have received her message as she gently nodded, "yes," she conceded, "I suppose you have a point there." Hope couldn't believe it, Sharon Carter --out of all people-- had just made her mother back off of her about giving her grandchildren.

Sharon nodded before casually switching the subject, "So, will you be staying here long?"

"Ah, no. Just passing through. I have a plane to catch in a few hours." She then sheepishly looked to Hope, "and I was hoping to take my daughter out for dinner before my flight."

"You were?" Hope asked plainly. A little disoriented by the rollercoaster of emotions she only just experienced.

"Yes, if you're interested," Janet softly inquired; with an apology in her eyes. "I promise I'll be good," she assured her that she wouldn't bring up the 'kids topic' during that time.

Hope studied her, seeing that she truly did look genuine; wanting to keep her word. "Okay," Hope nodded with a soft smirk.

"Okay," Janet smiled, with relief in her eyes. She then turned to the agent, "Sharon, it was really nice to see you again. Nice to see your relationship with Hope hasn't changed much," she grinned before turning and walking away towards the doors, "you still have each other's backs."

Sharon shot a disapproving glare at Hope, "I'm her instructor. Her performance reflects onto me, is all"

Hope narrowed her eyes back at her as she started making her way out too, "And it kills me to know I'm making her look so good."

Hope then flashed her a mocking smirk before looking away to push the doors open. As Hope and Janet exited the gym, all they could hear was Sharon grunting, "Please," towards her comment which made Hope roll her eyes at her. Sharon Carter was definitely an enigma.

They then rounded a corner to start up a wide flight of stairs, but once they hit the first landing, Hope had come to the conclusion that she couldn't keep the family heirloom.

Hope slipped off the ring and spun in her tracks to turn to her mother. "Here," she held it out to her.

"Why are you giving this back?" Janet shook her head in utter bafflement, "It's yours."

"It comes with an expectation that I'm not willing to fulfill. To pass it onto the next Van Dyne girl."

Janet came softly, "Hope--"

"You promised," Hope stretched her arm out further, thrusting the ring closer to her. Their eyes locked, where Janet didn't budge. She looked helpless, not wanting to take it back, but knowing that her relationship with her daughter was on the line. "Please take it so we can go out to dinner and have a nice evening," Hope asked assertively, yet not angrily. Janet sighed before she took the ring.

"So, where would you like to go and eat?" Hope asked, glad the physical representation of an unwanted expectation was no longer around her finger, as she turned to continue climbing the stairs.

"Ah, I have a place in mind," Janet responded, as if they hadn't just had a heavy moment between them. "I haven't been there in years, but it's no dive, so we'll have to dress for it."

"I can't say that I have any formal clothes along with me here."

"That's alright. I did some shopping while I was in Wakanda. Bought a few dresses. I'm sure you'll be able to find something from my haul that you might like to wear."

They both reached the second storey as Hope smiled at her, "That sounds great. Thank you."

Janet then reached over, hooking her arm back with her daughter, as she smiled back at her, "Of course."

Hope proceeded to give her mother a tour of the premises, before they went to her room to get ready; thoroughly enjoying each other's company.

Janet had shown Hope all the beautiful clothes she'd purchased in Wakanda; enthusiastically sharing about all of the designers she'd met. Hope loved listening to her mother talking about her greatest passion, fashion.

Hope ended up picking a gorgeous, flowy, floor length dress, that faded from a vivid emerald green at the bottom to a creamy sage at the top, with a large dark brown pattern across it that resembled the branches of an Acacia tree. Hope pinned her hair up in a messy low bun, thankful that her surgery spot had grown out by quite a bit. Now she was not as limited with hairstyles. Though, ironically, the one she picked would have covered the spot regardless.

And Janet wore a black dress, with an intricate gather pattern, which made the skirt fall in a beautifully unique way, almost looking like a rose bud. And she'd left her hair down; only adding a few curls to the ends of it.

Once they'd finished getting ready, they left in Janet's rental car, where her mother insisted on driving. Wanting to keep the place a surprise for Hope.

They reached the city, only to drive within it for a short time before Janet brought them into an empty lot, which was situated by the river. Curious, Hope studied the place, seeing a building, one lot over that could very well have been a restaurant; not that she could tell for sure. "Did you turn in too early? Is that the restaurant over there," Hope pointed.

"Yes, that's the restaurant. And no, I didn't turn in too early," Janet parked the vehicle close to the water. "Come on," she got out, where Hope, very curiously, followed.

"Mom, you're being suspicious," Hope followed the woman as she began walking down a set of uneven stone stairs towards the river bank.

Janet didn't say a word, she merely kept walking until their path peeked out of the trees, where Hope caught sight of the sun setting over the river. Then her eyes shifted down to the waterfront, where she saw a dock with a pontoon boat tied up to it. But what had really caught her eye was Maria, who was standing there before the dock, wearing a beautiful maroon, floor length dress with black trim, with her hair tied back. She looked like an oil painting; absolutely breathtaking.

"Maria?" Hope increased her speed, now trotting down to her, "You're here," she practically ran into her arms.

"Yeah," Maria wrapped her into an embrace, pulling her in close. "I thought I'd stop by, take you on a boat ride and feed you some fancy French take-out," she smiled at her; sapphire eyes shining.

"French?" Hope was suddenly very aware of what day it was.

"Uh huh," she nodded. "Though, I wasn't ambitious enough to get us martinis and brandy, but I do have a bottle of wine in there," she gestured with her head towards the boat.

Maria's words were too much. Maria herself, was too much. Hope, in reaction to her, aggressively pushed her mouth to hers, kissing her passionately. She really was the sweetest, most thoughtful person in the world.

Breaking the kiss, Hope pushed her forehead to Maria's, her hand cupping her perfectly sculpted cheek, as she opened her eyes to peer directly into Maria's. "It's the twenty-sixth."

Maria slid her hand up from Hope's neck, to her face; brushing her thumb over her lips. "It is the twenty-sixth," she confirmed.

"You remembered."

"Of course I remembered our first date," she referred to their rendez-vous at the restaurant, exactly one year ago.

Suddenly a bright light flashed around them, making the women turn to see Janet, now standing a couple metres away, holding up her phone in front of her.

"Did you really just take a picture of us?" Hope shook her head at her mother in disbelief.

"Hey, it's a mother's job to take pictures of her kids before they go out on fancy dates," she defended herself, before looking at her mobile. "Not that this photo comes close to capturing what I see," she softly smiled, gazing back up at them, "Your two particall frequencies coming together as this --like-- little homogeneous star, rippling out all around you."

Hope nearly cried in hearing that they were matched up like they were before. She then turned back to Maria, once again pushing her forehead to hers, closing her eyes, needing to just feel Maria's presence. Maria responded to her actions by pulling her in closer.

"Okay, you two love birds," Janet practically chuckled, "I'm going to leave you to it and head up to the restaurant. The Peterson's should already be in there."

Hope pulled away from Maria to focus on her mother, "Like Richard and Amelia?"

"Yes, we arranged a get-together while I was here. I haven't seen them since I've gotten back." She walked up to them, "so I'll say my farewells to you girls now, since I'm sure I'll be leaving for the airport before you guys get back."

She then went in to hug Hope, "Goodbye, jellybean."

"Bye, mom." Hope squeezed her before letting go, "And say hi to the Persons for me, would you?" They were old family friends that moved to Pittsburgh years ago, who Hope hadn't seen since she was a young adult.

"Will do," she nodded before turning to Maria, giving her a hug. "Goodbye, pumpkin." Hope couldn't help but gush that the name of endearment that her mother had given Maria, had stuck. Janet then pulled away, only to then grab a hold of each of their hands, looking them over, "You two look so beautiful."

"So do you, Mom."

"Like white gold," Maria said, making Janet look to her in confusion, "classy and expensive," she clarified. "At least, that's what I think the song meant by it."

"What song?" Hope asked.

Maria shrugged, "Ah, some Bruno Mars song."

"Well, I don't know who that is," Janet smiled at her, as she let go of their hands to start backing away, "but I love the compliment. Probably one of the nicest I've heard."

Maria then whispered into Hope's ear, "nicest she's ever heard. Catch that?" Janet then turned, making her way back up to the parking lot. "I'm winning over her favouritism." Hope then jabbed her in the ribs with her elbow in good fun. "Ow!" Maria laughed.

"Hey, no fighting back there!" Janet called out as she started ascending the stairway, not looking back at them. "And --I swear-- If I hear a big splash, I'm grounding the both of you!"

Hope chuckled, now fantasising about throwing Maria into the river. She was about to flash her a playful look, but didn't get the opportunity to do so, for Maria had grabbed her hand, guiding her to the boat, "Come on, beautiful, our food's getting cold."

Maria then helped her into the watercraft, bringing her to the padded bench seat that ran the length of the starboard side of the boat. She was led right to a small table that was set up with empty plates and cutlery. "You can make yourself comfortable while I pull us out of here," she pointed to the spot, where Hope silently complied; sitting down..

While Maria untied the boat, started the engine, and pulled them out from the dock, Hope couldn't help but stare at her. Maria was so captivating, her beautiful dress, which she assumed her mother had lent her too, was majestically blowing in the wind. The way her garment plunged down in the back, exposing her long, elegant spine, gave her shivers just looking at it. And when Maria turned her head, and Hope caught a glimpse of the side profile of her perfect, angular face, that only exuded strength and beauty, while presented on top of the most exquisitely protracted neck, Hope lost her breath; her brain forgetting the importance of air.

Maria didn't take them out very far, but instead, lined up the boat in the centre of the river, before cutting the engine so that the current could slowly take them down stream.

She then went to a wooden chair that was situated by the small table, opposite Hope, and sat down. Pulling out a large thermal bag from behind her, she started placing black foam take-away boxes out on top of the table. But before she opened them, she reached to the side, on the ground, for a medium sized, open, tupperware container that held two wine glasses, a bottle of merlot, and a corkscrew.

After Maria placed the glasses on the table, Hope reached out, asking, "can open the bottle?" She almost demanded with a large measure of enthusiasm. "Please?" She flashed a smile, realising her tone. "I love opening wine bottles. Decorking things is fun."

Maria chuckled at her, handing her the bottle and corkscrew, "whatever floats your boat."

Hope giggled at the silly exchange as she proceeded to rip off the seal at the neck of the bottle, while Maria started distributing food onto their plates.

"So, How long are you staying here in Pennsylvania for?" Hope asked, praying that it wasn't just for a few hours.

"Couple days, if I don't get called away sooner, that is."

"Really?" Hope nearly bounced out of her seat.

"Sure," Maria gave her a cheeky smirk, "Gotta check in on my future agents. See how their training's going."

"Oh, I see how it is." Hope yanked the cork out of the bottle, producing a loud pop sound, that she'd always enjoyed. "You're just here for work. It's merely a coincidence that I'm here too."

"To be honest, I almost forgot you were in the program. Luckily, your mom reminded me when we were on our way over."

Hope giggled, "shut up."

Maria looked rather proud of herself before she asked. "How's Carter been treating you guys?"

Suddenly Hope felt very awkward, not wanting to complain about her, or drag Maria into the issues that she was having with her friend.

Pouring the wine into Maria's glass, she simply said, "Fine."

"Wow. That bad?"

"I didn't say anything," Hope shook her head in innocence.

Maria sighed, clearly knowing exactly what was going on, "has she been singling you out?" Hope didn't know what to say, she didn't want to lie. So she stayed silent while stiffly pouring some wine into her own glass. "That asshole," Maria grunted.

"It's not that bad. Really," Hope insisted.

"I'm sorry you have to put up with her," she said in remorse.

"Again, it's not that bad. And besides, it's not like she's your fault."

"No, she's absolutely my fault," Maria grumbled. "It's gotten to the point where if I so much as express interest in a girl, she'll act like a grade-A bitch towards her. She's like the annoying, over protective sister I never asked for."

"I'm glad you have her," Hope couldn't help but be grateful that she had someone watching her back over the years. "She's a really good person."

Maria looked taken aback. "That's an odd thing to say about the person who's got you in their crosshairs."

"Call me optimistic, but I'm pretty sure I'm already winning her over." She thought about their interactions from earlier that day. "Though," she wondered, while gleefully fantasising the scenario out in her head, "I feel like I'd get further with her if I could punch her in the face." She then quickly clarified, "while sparing with her, that is."

"Learning that your instinct to win her over is to literally deck her, truly gives me hope that you might actually achieve your goal in befriending her," Maria smirked at her just as she put the final food item onto their plates.

"Ratatouille," Hope looked to what Maria had just placed in front of her. "God, my ex was such a snob about ratatouille." She then thought about it for a second longer before adding, "Actually, thinking about it, he was kind of a snob about all French cuisine." Hope picked up her fork, cutting into it before trying a small piece of it.

"Well does it pass the test?" Maria asked.

"It definitely passes my test," Hope practically moaned out after swallowing. It was so delicious. "It probably wouldn't pass his though. I mean, the audacity of it being served in uncultured America! High crimes. Failure," she cut into it for another bite, already addicted to it, "No hope for it," she placed the piece into her mouth.

Maria smiled at her, as she started to cut into her own food, while asking, "which ex is this?"

Hope loved that she had to ask, it meant that Maria hadn't gone fishing into her dating history like Sharon had. "Michael Dubois," who was her boyfriend from France. They'd met at a charity gala. "He was really something else," Hope shook her head just thinking about how juvenile he, and their relationship, was. "He thought owning a restaurant in Paris made him a culinary expert. Despite the fact that he'd never once so much as taken a cooking class or worked in a kitchen."

"He sounds very annoying."

"Oh, he was," Hope agreed wholeheartedly. "Why I dated him is still a mystery to me." Hope then started cutting into her roasted asparagus, "Also, I have a suspicion he slept around on me."

"What?" Maria came sharply, where Hope wasn't expecting her to react to her off-handed comment so seriously.

"I don't know for sure," she wanted to clarify, "But, going off of the type of guy he was, and the fact that we were often separated by an ocean," she shrugged, letting Maria fill in the blanks on her own.

"How could anyone cheat on you? You're like the hottest person in the world." she sounded so offended and pissed off. "God, I hate men," she growled while sawing into her food.

"Hey," Hope pointed her fork at her, "no one hates men more than the people who are attracted to them." Maria chuckled at her which made Hope grin in response. "I think that's why I liked Scott. He wasn't an asshole," Hope theorised, since there really wasn't much beyond his kindness and his cute dopey face that Hope actually found appealing in him as a partner.

"Wow, what a low bar," Maria snickered.

"Yeah, I know," she sighed, "pretty sad." Then a playful mood struck her as she continued, "And you know what else is pretty sad? The person I'm currently seeing, can't even hit that bar." She dramatically shook her head, as she looked off down the river that was growing darker by the minute with the sun almost now completely gone, "'Cause, man, she's a real bitch," She then turned her head to Maria, who had a look of amusement on her face, "One might even say, she's a top tier, primo, cold bitch."

"Fuck off," She laughed.

"You're only proving my point here," Hope chuckled before taking a sip of her wine. "Besides," she said after swallowing, "you can't judge me for my exes when yours were obviously no better."

"How would you know? Maybe every single one of them was a perfect little angel, but they all ended up perishing in horrible, unrelated deaths; ending every one of my relationships with them."

"The pastor's daughter?" Hope raised her brow, challenging her statement.

"I lied about her, she's actually very dead. Tragic baptism related drowning," Maria shoved a fork full of food into her mouth, before dramatically ripping out her clean utensil.

Hope burst out laughing at her ridiculous comment, finding her emotional evasion tactics to be quite humourous at times.

Once she'd taken a calming breath, she asked with more weight, showing that she wanted a real answer this time. "And Natasha? You guys were a thing, right?" Hope had always assumed this but had never flat out asked for confirmation.

"Sort of," Maria stopped, like she was properly mulling it over. "It was more of a friend's with benefits type situation," she'd finally concluded.

"So you guys were never in love with each other?"

"No," Maria confidently said, where Hope honestly didn't know how she felt about her answer. She definitely believed her, but there was a part of her that wished that she'd had someone to truly love in those times before the two of them had met.

"Well," Hope decided to pick a lighter response, not wanting to bring the mood down. "I guess that's good since she seems to be very interested in Clint."

"Thank you!" Maria practically pounded the table. "They're so into each other but won't admit it." Maria then started stabbing at her food with her fork, "God, between them and Sharon and Steve, I'm surrounded by idiots who won't confess their love for each other."

"Wait," Hope's interest was now fully peaked, "Sharon and Steve?"

"Yes," Maria then gave her a look of warning, "but this doesn't leave this table. Seriously. Sharon'll kill me if she finds out I told you."

But Hope couldn't help but instantly brainstorm on all the possibilities of how she could mess with Sharon, with this newly presented information.

"I see a devilish look in your eyes," Maria continued with her firm tone, "Whatever you're thinking, don't. And that's an order."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Hope looked down to her plate, stabbing a piece of her dumpling, "I'm just sitting here innocently eating my delicious veggie quenelle," she then pop that said item into her mouth, giving her a tight, closed mouth, smile.

"If you get murdered, I'm not avenging your death. Last thing I need is to lose any more agents." But as soon as her last statement left her mouth, the spark in her eyes went out, as she'd unintentionally made herself sad; evidently now thinking about all the fallen agents that she was responsible for. "I'm going to move the boat before we run into this bank here," she awkwardly got up, as she gestured at the low hanging trees on the shoreline that they were approaching on.

Hope sighed, hating how she was still so burdened by the event as she watched her turn on the engine to line the boat back up, as Hope took the job of making sure nothing had fallen off of the table.

The slight breeze from the boat in motion sent a shiver down Hope's spine. As soon as the engine was cut and she no longer had to use her hands to hold down their wine glasses, she hugged herself for warmth.

"Are you cold?" Maria walked to her.

"A little," she tried to say as nonchalantly as possible, not wanting to be a pain.

Maria then moved to a box sitting off by the bow; flipping it open to grab a blanket from within it. She then walked back over to Hope, slowly sliding it behind her back, careful not to bump the table, and then wrapped it around her, while she herself sat down next to her on the bench.

"We should've just eaten in the restaurant," Maria pulled the blanket more snug around her, "I could always turn us around. Have a drink inside to warm up."

"What? Why? Because I'm cold?" Hope nearly barked out, greatly annoyed that her slight chill brought on such a drastic suggestion. "I have a blanket, and we've got wine, problem solved."

"Good, 'cause I'm not exactly keen on going in there," she said in a tone that seemed a little too serious for the situation.

"What do you mean by that?" Hope prodded, suspecting there was more behind her words.

"Nothing," she shook her head, trying to drop the subject.

"Maria," Hope insisted.

"It's just," she sighed, "we're not exactly in super progressive San Francisco right now."

Suddenly it made sense to Hope. Maria had come from a past of such extreme homophobia, admittedly, a level of homophobia that Hope had never known herself, that going out in public with her would be something that she'd be hyper aware of. Way more than she herself would ever think to be.

"No, we're not in San Francisco, but we are on a boat, that we have all to ourselves, underneath the stars," she tried to ease Maria's discomfort, "See," Hope pointed at the night sky, "look how bright the Big Dipper is tonight."

Maria followed her finger with her eyes, "wish it was always that bright. Makes it easier to find the North Star," Maria then pulled Hope's finger downward so it pointed to the brightest astronomical body instead. "Worst is when you're without gear, don't know where the hell you are, and there's cloud coverage," she gripped.

Hope dropped her hand, bringing Maria's along with it, as she whipped her head to the side to glare at her, "Would you stop looking at the stars as a map for one evening, Commander, and simply enjoy them for their beauty and the stories they hold."

"And which stories are those?" Maria smirked as she looked to her with intrigue.

Hope mirrored her facial expression before looking back up to the sky, now leaning into Maria's shoulder. "See, like the Andromeda constellation." Hope pointed out, "that cluster right there." Maria shifted her body sideways in her spot, sliding her one thigh onto the seat. She then wrapped her arms around Hope's torso, pulling her into her chest. Smiling at her actions, Hope leaned back while lifting her feet up onto the bench so that she could sprawl her legs out comfortably, before she continued, "According to Greek Mythology, Cassiopeia, who was a very vain queen, thought she was fairer than the infamously beautiful sea nymphs. So when the nymphs found out about this, they went to Poseidon to complain about her. Where he then sent a sea monster, named Cetus, to flood Cassiopeia's husband's lands."

"Is everyone in Greek Mythology petty?"

"Gods and people alike are petty across all religions."

"Fair point."

"Anyway," Hope continued the story that she learned about back in highschool, "so the king, desperate to save his lands, sought out advice from an oracle, as to what to do. He was then told to sacrifice his daughter, Andromeda, to Poseidon by allowing Cetus to kill her. Only then would the monster stop destroying his lands. So the king --sorrowfully-- decided to do it."

"Yeah, that seems about right," Maria grunted.

"Yeah," Hope agreed, also well aware of the 'disposable woman' trope, "he chained her up against a rock and left her to die. But," she said with a little more excitement, "before Cetus could get to her, Perseus spots her as he happened to be passing by. He then ends up saving her by killing the monster and freeing her. After that, the two fall in love and get married."

"Well, I guess that's not the worst story," Maria seemed pleased with how it turned out. "She got to live, and even gets a happy ending, unlike Jephthah's daughter from the Bible."

"Wait, what happened to her?" Hope wasn't well versed in many Jewish stories.

"Her father wins a battle, and then vows to God that he'll offer the first thing that comes out of his house, as a burnt offering to him in thanks."

"And his daughter comes out," Hope said in understanding.

"Literally dancing around, playing a tambourine to greet him home from war."

"Does he go through with the sacrifice?"

"Yep."

"Yeah, I'll take this Greek myth over that biblical one, any day." Hope then added to really drive in her point, "and this one even honours Andromeda when Athena places her image amongst the stars, next to her husband Perseus," she pointed out his constellation in the sky, "and her mother, Cassiopeia," she then moved her hand, gesturing to her matriarch's stars.

Maria then thoughtfully said, "I don't know much about Athena, but every time I hear anything about her, she seems to really have her shit together."

Her comment made Hope laugh out in realisation of something that she'd never thought of until that moment.

"What's so funny?" Maria asked in notable confusion.

"It's just, youareAthena."

"What?"

"She's the goddess of wisdom and warfare. And she also never took a male lover." It was now uncanny to Hope, "you're like the incarnate of her, walking amongst the people of the modern era."

"See," Hope could hear the smile in Maria's voice, "like I said. She has her shit together."

"Unbelievable," Hope gawked through a grin. "This is why you don't meet my low bar, because right now you're turning my complement into a brag, when instead you should be telling me how I'm also a beautiful goddess."

Maria chuckled, squeezing her tighter as she pushed her face to the side of her head. "You're the most beautiful goddess of them all," she spoke into her hair. "You lord your elegance and unworldly hotness, over all the other deities. And the sea nymphs are all terribly jealous of you for it."

Hope giggled, always going weak whenever Maria, specifically, called her 'hot'. She wasn't used to hearing people say that directly to her face. "Okay, now you're soaring over that bar."

"Well that was easy. Good to know stroking your vanity would work so well."

"Yes, make me feel pretty and I'm all yours."

"Oh, on that topic," Maria unwrapped herself from her as she reached down to the thermal bag beside them. "I got you something."

"You did?" Hope turned a bit in her seat, her feet now bent under her butt, to better face her.

Maria pulled out a black jewellery box, handing it to her with, what looked like, slight hesitation. "I didn't really know what to get," she nearly stammered out, or as much as controlled Maria Hill could stammer, "If you hate it, that's totally fine, I can return it. I just--"

"Did you get me an anniversary present?" Hope asked, her heart already melting from her thoughtfulness.

"Yeah," she said, like she didn't know if what she was doing was the appropriate thing to do. Which really showed just how foreign relationships were to Maria.

Loving Maria so much in that moment, Hope looked down to the box; opening it to find a beautiful necklace that was a dainty, gold wasp pendant, which had silver wings, hanging from a silver chain. "Oh my god, it's a little wasp," she gasped.

"I know it's probably not what you're used to getting, I just--"

"I love it," Hope blurted. It was so personal. It was probably the only piece of jewellery she'd ever received from a partner that wasn't just an expensive, generic tennis bracelet or a set of diamond earrings.

"Really?" Maria asked, clearly needing a little more reassurance.

"Yeah. It's perfect," she went in to fiercely kiss her, breaking away to insist, "You're perfect," pushing her mouth back to hers only to then rip away again as she shamefully admitted, "I don't have anything for you."

"That's okay," Maria insisted, "This is kind of an unofficial anniversary anyway. It's not even of the first time we met. Or of when we officially got together."

"Don't forget about our first kiss," Hope said as she was already clasping her pendant around her neck.

"That one too," Maria nodded with a smirk, full well knowing that their first kiss had escalated into a lot of other firsts, making that particular one an anniversary a few times over.

"We do kinda have a few anniversaries, don't we?"

"Yeah."

"Well," Hope dropped her blanket so that she could move up onto her knees, to then straddle Maria's lap, "I'm not against the idea of celebrating all of them," Hope slid her hands to Maria's bare shoulders, as the other woman held her by the hips. "Especially if this is what I'm treated to on them." Hope then dropped her head to push her lips to Maria's.

Maria opened her mouth to greet Hope's tongue with her own, which churned her stomach into knots. She still couldn't get over just how much Maria's kisses had always impacted her.

Maria's hands then slowly worked their way up Hope's body, stopping at her face where she then pulled Hope away, only to say, "You know, eventually you're gonna have to pull your own weight on these too. Plan an anniversary so I don't have to."

"And I will," Hope insisted before pushing their mouths back together only to then pull them back apart. "Like you said, eventually."

"Preferably in this century," Maria opened her eyes to give her a stern look.

"We'll see," Hope flashed her a smile.

"You know, you talk about your low bar, but it seems to be getting higher by the minute, with all these expectations you suddenly have of me here."

"Baby, it's you who's raising the bar so high that it's now in Andromeda's possession, way up there in her constellation." She flicked her wrist in the direction of the stars. "That's not on me. This problem is of your own making."

"You're impossible," Maria admitted as she brushed her thumbs over Hope's cheeks.

"And also --what was it?-- a smidge entitled, but in an adorable kind of way," she recalled to what Maria had said about her back in Africa.

"Adorableandnon-egotistical kinda way," Maria corrected her.

"Uh huh," Hope didn't care to carry on the conversation any longer, as she captured Maria's lips once again. Where the two continued to enjoy their first anniversary under the stars.


	31. Thirty First

Maria fluttered her eyelids open, her vision quickly adjusting to the dimly lit room that was partially illuminated by the harsh green glow of the alarm clock that sat on the nightstand next to her. It was early. Of course it was. Maria was lucky if her body had allowed her as much as five hours of rest during any given night. Military life and the stresses that came along with S.H.I.E.L.D. command had stripped the notion of a full-night's-sleep away from her long ago.

Turning her head to the side, Maria's face broke into a smile, finding Hope passed out with her back turned to her, curled up on her side. The pure euphoria Maria felt on those days when she woke up next to the love of her life never seemed to wear off. Maria shifted onto her side, sliding her arm around Hope's nude torso and under her arm, resting her hand on Hope's collarbone as she pulled their naked bodies tightly together. Dropping her head to her shoulder, the intoxicating scent of Hope's skin instantly driving her mad. Not able to help herself she began pushing her lips to her body, in sloppy, open mouthed kisses, as she wanted to taste her through each touch.

"Mmmmmm-Maria," Hope murmured out, in a heavy, sleep drenched groan as she stirred in her grasp.

Maria only smiled into her skin as she continued her actions, which resulted in Hope flopping her hand on top of Maria's. It was clear that Hope was barely awake, since she could hardly grip onto the hand that was holding onto her upper body. Maria then spread her fingers apart, pushing them back to intertwine them with Hope's. And then fold them over in her grip, grasping a few of Hope's digits along with her own. She then moved her mouth to her neck. She had to use her nose to burrow through her hair before her lips were able to touch skin. But once they did, Hope let out another moan. "Maria. Baby," she nearly whimpered, right before she turned her body in Maria's arms, now facing her. She then heavily dropped her head onto Maria's collarbone; wrapping her arm around her body. "Is it time to get up?" She stretched her legs out as she pouted, "'cause I don't wanna."

Maria wrapped her arms around her, "No, not yet," she smiled as she began playing with Hope's hair. "But I'm gonna get up pretty soon. I want to go find Sharon," she whispered, knowing Sharon was an early riser. Maria had intentions of catching up with the agent. She wanted to be courteous and touch base with her before dropping in on her class.

Hope slid her hand away from Maria's back, to bring it to her chest; lightly grabbing her boob as if to squish it like she was seeking the soft comfort of a teddy bear. "Or you could just stay here with me forever," Hope muttered into her skin, clearly still half asleep.

"Trust me, if I could, I would," she rested her chin on top of Hope's scalp.

Hope's sighed in annoyance. The action was so large that Maria felt her whole body expand in her arms before drastically deflating as the air rushed out of her body and onto Maria's neck. Maria couldn't help but smirk at her, touched that her absence created such a disheartened reaction from her.

"Go back to sleep, my love," Maria sank her fingers into Hope's hair as she cradled her head, "I'm gonna have Carter work you guys hard today, so you'll need your rest."

Hope yawned out before grunting, "No don't." She then squished her boob into her flat hand as she pushed Maria away, ever so slightly, by it. "If you do, I'll hate you forever," she growled while rolling her head back, to then force her eyes open to look at Maria.

Maria could only smile at her adorableness as she pushed back the messy hair that was partially covering Hope's face. "Hey, I have a hardass reputation to uphold. I'm not compromising it just because you're cute."

Maria watched Hope's heavy eyelids close as a beautiful smile spread across her face. She seemed far too tired to come up with a clever quip to throw back at her. Chuckling underneath her breath, Maria said with warning, "you better be falling back asleep here."

"I'm not," Hope muttered, eyes still closed. "What time is it, anyway?"

"Just about zero-five-thirty."

Hope grunted at her response before dropping her head back to its spot at Maria's collarbone. "I wanted to call my mom this morning. See if she's alright."

"Alright, as in, if she got home safely?" Maria wondered out loud.

But Hope didn't answer straightway, making Maria think that she had fallen back asleep. Though, after a long pause, Hope said in a rather coherent voice, "I think my parents are on their way to a divorce."

"What?" Her statement totally took her off guard. Not expecting that to come out of her mouth, at least, not in that moment.

"They're separated right now," she simply said.

Maria didn't quite know what to say. The news brought on mixed feelings. On one hand, she never liked Hank and was glad Janet was moving away from him. But on the other hand, they were Hope's parents. It was the other shoe dropping, just like Hope had predicted it would.

Maria then shimmied her body downwards a bit, sliding her head off the pillow so that she was now eye level with the other woman, as Hope opened her eyes to watch her. Their faces were nearly touching when Maria supportively wrapped her arm around Hope's body. Locking gazes, Maria softly asked, "you okay?"

"Yeah. I just want my mom to get out with as little damage as possible."

"Damage?" Maria's chest tightened, scared for Janet's safety, as her hand involuntarily clenched into a fist on Hope's back, fierce protectiveness taking over her. Full well knowing Hank had been violent with her in the past.

"Emotional," Hope quickly added, clearly noticing Maria's concern and tense body that was ready to defend. "He's okay now," she said as to say that Hank's violence was now under control.

Maria sighed in relief before she dropped her head to Hope's, closing her eyes. She waited for Hope to speak her mind but when nothing came out, Maria rolled away, reaching back behind her to grab Hope's phone, unplugging it, before returning to her position.

She held the mobile up to her, "judging by how jetlagged my body is, I'd say it's a safe bet your mom's awake now too." Hope took the phone out of her hand. "And while you give her a call" --she couldn't help but reach out again to her hair, lovingly combing her fingers through it-- "I'm gonna hop in the shower."

Hope looked at her so gently as she softly said, "kay."

"Or do you want me to stay here while you're on the phone?"

"No, it's okay. I got this," she nodded her head, now looking much more alert. "Go shower. If there's anything to report, I'll let you know."

"Okay," Maria gave her a reassuring smile before starting to get up but before she could get very far, Hope yanked her back to her, wrapping her arm around her as she properly kissed her good morning.

After mouths parted, Hope gently spoke into her lips, "thank you."

"For what?"

"For everything," she then pushed her mouth back to hers, where Maria couldn't help but smile into the kiss. Whatever it was that she'd done right by Hope, she was sure glad that she did it.

It took everything in her to untangle herself from Hope and get out of bed. Every inch of her body wanted to stay there in Hope's soft, warm embrace for all eternity.

Maria quickly showered, washing the scent of their passionate night off of her skin and dressed in workout clothing. Black compression shorts, with a forest green tee-shirt that read 'Marines' on it, and a pair of white and yellow runners. She suspected that Sharon would be working out, probably at the gym, and had intentions of joining her.

She tied her hair back into a ponytail before going back to Hope in bed. The woman looked to have fallen back asleep with her phone laying on the mattress next to her.

Maria quietly approached her, gently sitting on the edge of the bed where she leaned down to kiss Hope on the forehead.

Just as she lifted her head away from her, Hope muttered, her eyes still closed, "he left flowers for her in the foyer with a card that read 'sorry'."

Realising she was talking about her parents, Maria asked, "How did she feel about it?"

She sighed sleepily, "conflicted."

"And how do you feel about it?"

She nuzzled her face into her pillow as she mumbled, "less conflicted."

Maria pulled the blanket up to Hope's shoulder, before rubbing her hand over her back. She had just over twenty minutes before her alarm and wanted her to sleep until the moment it went off. Meaning, they'd have to continue the conversation about her parents at a later time.

"I'll see you in a bit," Maria gently said, but Hope was already asleep and didn't respond; making her smile at her before rising to her feet to leave.

Exiting the lodging house, Maria started towards the main building. As she was traveling down the sidewalk, she ran into one of her agents. He was young and she didn't recognise him. Probably was one of the many that she'd never interacted with.

"Commander," the man nearly jumped in surprise.

"Agent…" she cocked her head to the side, allowing him to introduce himself.

"Ah, Singh, Ma'am."

"Singh," she nodded. "Any idea where Agent Carter's current location is?"

"Yes, Ma'am. She's jogging the property. Just had eyes on her--" He turned to point towards the indoor firing range "--She should be in sight any second now."

Just as he'd predicted, she caught sight of Carter in the distance, her view now no longer blocked by the structure, running the perimeter.

"Much appreciated," Maria nodded to Singh before taking off in a run to meet up with her.

As Maria neared the agent, Sharon caught sight of her, which only made her increase her speed. Maria shook her head at her cheeky actions, as she too sped up, matching pace next to her.

"What?" Sharon began, "You don't write. Don't call. Then one day, out of the blue, my head of security tells me you checked into my base. Totally unannounced."

Chuckling through her breathing that was now starting to become heavier, Maria side eyed her, "Oh, this is your base now?"

"Yup!" Sharon grinned. "Well, until you realise how lost you are out there without me and release me from here."

Maria rolled her eyes before she informed her. "We're pretty sure we found your replacement." The previous instructor had abruptly left the position due to medical issues, and Sharon was their temporary filler. "If all goes well, he'll be taking over here in a couple weeks."

"Like, fuck he will!" Sharon scoffed.

"Pardon?" Maria looked at her in confusion; she'd assumed that Sharon hated her current posting.

"He's not taking credit for my students. I'll see my class through to the end of their training, then he can start."

Maria always found her reactions to be quite amusing. She was literally the only person under her command who ever talked to her with utter disregard to her authority. And she was okay with it. Sharon was her little brat exception. "Is this you submitting an official request to your superior officer right now?" Maria teased her, knowing that her behaviour was out of love and never out of disrespect. "Do you want to throw in an extra 'fuck' for good measure?"

"Shut up!" Sharon chuckled.

Maria then side eyed her, fighting away a grin, "you know, If I didn't know any better, it almost sounds like you're proud of your class."

"I didn't say that."

But Maria knew better. "I've been reading your reports on them."

"Of course you have. Probably the first time you've ever bothered to read a farm report in your life." Sharon wiped her sweaty brow before giving her a knowing look. "Guess having a new vested interest in a certain someone in the program changes your priorities."

"Don't worry," Maria smiled, understanding her meaning yet deciding to bug her instead, "I'm not too worried about you burning the place to the ground." She then thought about a particular mission that they were both on years ago, "I mean, what are the chances you'd accidentally light a building on fire like that again?"

"For the hundredth time, I did that on purpose! And besides, it was just an old warehouse and arson was a perfect distraction for me to get in unnoticed and complete the job!" She snapped at her with annoyance, hating how Maria had always brought it up. Maria only chuckled, knowing that Sharon's actions that day were intentional, but she still loved to pretend that she didn't believe her about it. Insinuating that the agent accidentally burned the place down out of ineptitude and not out of resourcefulness. "Also," Sharon continued, "We both know I wasn't talking about me. I was talking abouther," she said in a sour tone.

Despite knowing that Sharon was doing her regular overprotective thing, Maria still found it odd that the woman had yet to ease up on Hope. The two of them had been dating for a while now, and Hope had a personality that Maria had assumed Sharon would get along with. "Okay, but what could you honestly hold against Hope though?" Maria asked.

"Who said I'm holding anything against her?" She said innocently. "Did she?" Sharon then studied Maria's face, not that she could hold her stare for very long since they were now jogging over uneven ground. "She did, didn't she?" She tightened her jaw, "that little--"

"No, she didn't," Maria cut her off, "I just know the modus operandi of your assholeary."

"She's not perfect, you know?" Sharon replied, but not in a snippy way, it almost sounded a little defeated. "Yeah, she might be skilled, but she's still only here because she was born into privilege and has the right connections. You can tell this from her entitled attitude alone."

Maria nodded, "True," knowing what she said had validity to it, yet finding her words to be quite ironic too. "She's nearly identical to the rich girl from Virginia with family ties to the founder of S.H.I.E.L.D. who feels quite comfortable back-talking her C.O. on the regular." She then smirked at the woman.

"Wow, that was a low blow," Sharon shook her head. "You basically implied we're the same."

"Did I?" Maria innocently shrugged.

"Ew, is this you telling me you're into me?"

"What?" Maria laughed in confusion.

"I mean, if you're saying Hope and I are anything alike, you're basically admitting that I'm your type."

Maria tilted her head back as she sighed, "Oh my god," to her ridiculousness.

"Oh boy, I have to process this," Sharon continued in good fun, "I had no idea you've been in love with me for all these years."

"Yeah, you caught me," Maria sarcastically said. "There's only been one thing holding me back all this time."

"I'm straight," she said matter-of-factly.

"You're blonde," Maria corrected her.

Sharon gasped in great offence. "Fuck off! My hair is beautiful!" She then yanked her blonde locks out of its ponytail. "You just wish you could run your hands through it like a lover could," she ran a little ahead of Maria, only to dramatically shake her long mane in her face.

More than slightly grossed out by the thought of being romantically involved with Sharon, the person in whom she viewed as a sister, Maria suggested, "I'll race you to the shed up there." --pointing at the small structure at the end of the field. "And if you think I'm only proposing this competition to shut down this disturbing conversation, you'd be absolutely right in assuming that." Maria was sure that Sharon already understood her intentions before saying them out loud. Since Maria wasn't competitive in any way, and rarely ever challenged anyone to anything, just for the fun of it.

"Loser does pushups while the other sits on their back!" Sharon called over her shoulder in excitement as she broke out into a spring, where Maria took off behind her, chuckling in the process.

* * *

Roz, Jason, and Hope had just completed their morning ten kilometre run that they went on together after breakfast every morning. Hope had always enjoyed jogging, especially because she was so competitive with herself; always trying to cut down on her time. Though, she did admittedly miss swimming. That had been her favourite cardio activity for many years now. She'd not only enjoyed swimming laps in a pool but often swam the ocean, going up against the waves.

Stepping into the gym ready to start their first class of the day, they were met with the sight of Sharon and Maria sparring on the mat in the center of the room. Sharon did a spin kick at Maria's head, where she was fast to grab her leg, only to use its momentum to dive over the limb, somersaulting onto the mat, while dragging Sharon along with her, which resulted with the blonde splayed out on the ground.

The action made Hope smile, loving the image of Maria taking the irritating pain-in-her-neck down to the mat.

"Oh. My. God." Roz grabbed both Hope's and Jason's forearms as she sputtered in an astonished whisper, "That's Commander Hill." She looked between the two of them frantically, "Guys, the Deputy Director is here," she said like she was holding in a squeal of excitement.

Maria briefly looked at the trio, like she was studying them, before she brought her attention back to Sharon. Extending a hand in assistance as she too rose to her feet.

"So that's who you were talking about earlier," Jason spoke in a low tone, addressing Roz. "Her eyes have the intensity of a Navajo warrior. Her spirit must be strong."

"Kay," --Sharon huffed, addressing her class while walking to her water bottle at the side of the mat-- "you guys know the drill. We're sparring this morning". She then squirted water into her mouth, swallowing it "--And as you can see" --she gestured with her hand towards Maria-- "Commander Hill is here to observe."

"And participate," Maria stated like the commanding officer she was.

"Yeah?" --Sharon looked at her with intrigue-- "You want to work in these trainees? Bruise them up so they take shape?"

"Hopefully you trained them up enough so bruising isn't necessary," Maria said with a little more warmth.

"Who do you want to work in first?" Sharon asked.

Maria looked over her candidates, sliding her jaw to the side like she was in deep contemplation. "How about youngest to oldest?" She looked at Roz but posed her question to Sharon.

"Always a good method," Sharon walked up beside Maria before calling out to the girl. "Solomon."

"Yes," she nearly jumped while taking a large step towards them. She then addressed Maria, vigorously nodding her head, "Ma'am, I'm your clay to be moulded."

Maria cocked her head ever so slightly, giving her an odd look. "Okay" --she straightened her neck, clasping her hands behind her back-- "Step forward, agent," ordering her to walk onto the mat in front of her.

"Strongbow, Van Dyne," Sharon instructed them, "you guys can work the other mat."

Jason and Hope did as instructed and walked around to the mat on the other end, as Hope's eyes were glued onto Maria. The other woman was already focused on Roz and didn't seem to notice Hope staring, or if she did notice, she was ignoring her eyes of intrigue.

"She's cute," Jason said to Hope, which resulted in her whipping her head to the side; glaring at him. She instantly felt possessive over Maria, not liking what Jason had just said. The man put this water bottle on the bench, not noticing her glare-- "She reminds me of my brother when he met Sammy Sosa on his twelfth birthday."

Hope sighed in relief, now realising that he was talking about Roz being cute, and not Maria. She then awkwardly responded, "Ah-- yeah, she is quite something over there."

Jason and Hope then worked on knife fighting with rubber blades. They never went full out while sparring because he was just so much stronger and faster than her. But that didn't mean that they couldn't attempt to hone their weapons skills together. Though, in times like that, Hope sure missed her wasp suit. The power she had with it on would have leveled the playing field, allowing them to have an actual, proper fight. But she knew the drill, this wasn't Avengers training. It was agent training and she had to be just as effective without her suit than she was with it.

Admittedly, every little breather that the two took, Hope's eyes were on the other mat. Observing Maria with Sharon and Roz. The two senior agents were spending a lot of time working individual moves with Roz; teaching her better and more advanced techniques.

Eventually they ended their session with her, where Roz walked over to Hope and Jason while Sharon yelled, "Van Dyne, you're up!"

"Waspy," --Roz stopped Hope as she was on her way over-- "she's just so cool. Cooler than I could have ever imagined. She's got me --like-- questioning my asexuality and everything."

Hope couldn't help but find Roz's hero worship of her girlfriend to be adorable. "Glad you had the time of your life with your future wife," she teased her, feeling completely different about Roz's harmless schoolgirl crush than the thought of a man objectifying her, like she'd briefly thought Jason was doing earlier.

"Don't say that" --she gasped, grabbing Hope's arm in a tight grip-- "I'm not worthy."

Smirking as they parted ways, Hope then walked up and onto the sparring mat, excitement and nerves brewing in her belly. She wanted to prove herself to Maria but feared that she wouldn't get the upper hand. Sharon was a very formidable opponent who always ended up getting more strikes on her in a fight. And Maria, well, maybe she could take her down? She'd fought her once before and had some success. She knew that Maria was this unstoppable beast with a knife and a sidearm, but she wasn't equipped with weapons at the moment. So Hope felt a little more confident in her chances with her.

Both of the agents studied Hope. Sharon, with her arms crossed, almost glaring her down, per her usual. Where as Maria was just looking thoughtfully at her. She really never wore her emotions on her sleeve. Hope was always left guessing on what was going on in that big, beautiful brain of hers because her face never told the whole story.

Sharon tilted her head towards Maria, not taking her eyes off of Hope, "You gonna fight her first?"

"No," she simply said before pivoting her body to face Sharon, "you can." --Maria then walked to the edge of the mat-- "I want to see who better weaponized the silver spoon they were born with." Turning, she gave Sharon a smirk.

Sharon smiled at her while shaking her head, "You're hilarious today, you know that?" She said, her words dripping in sarcasm.

Hope found Maria's comment a little off putting, it seemed directed at Sharon but still very much involved her and her charmed upbringing. Which she didn't quite know how to take, especially with her current internal struggle that she was having with the morality of her wealth. Though, it did seem like she made it in good fun, so she let the comment slide, for now.

As the two stepped to each other, Hope, in a need to prove herself in front of Maria, instantly made her first attack on Sharon, which was different than when they normally fought each other. They usually circled one another for a moment before one of them moved in on the other.

Sharon jumped to block but by the surprise and intrigue on her face, Hope was glad that she acted so abruptly. She loved throwing off her opponents like that.

Hope held her own for a while. Longer than she'd ever had before with the agent, until Sharon finally got a good strike in, taking her down to the mat. They'd eventually completed three rounds, all ending in Sharon's victory and Hope's annoyance building with each blow.

"Hope," Maria waved her over just as she was picking herself up off of the mat for the third time. Hope huffed as she walked over to her. "Stop trying to meet her strike for strike" --Maria pulled her over away from Sharon's listening ears-- "sometimes letting a more skilled opponent get a lesser hit on you, allows you to get a harder one on them." Hope ground her teeth, hating that Maria had just called her the weaker fighter.

"What are you saying to her over there?" Sharon called out over to them.

Ignoring her, Maria continued, "You guys both fight offensively, so change that around on her."

Hope grunted, "fine," as she turned around to walk back to Sharon, still very much annoyed by Maria's words, but even more so, angry with her own shortcomings. She was not used to failing. It's not that Hope was always the best in all her endeavors but she was at least always successful. Almost exclusively top ten percent, but often even top five, in everything she did from sports, to academics, to business. But fighting was an all or nothing activity. You were either the winner or the loser, there were no percentiles of success.

Hope still kept Maria's words in mind as they began fighting again. They were matching strikes, like usual, when Hope decided to try out the advice. Hope had already noticed that Sharon was a fan of the jab hook combo, so she set up a perfect opportunity for the other woman to throw her jab, but instead of blocking it, Hope tensed up, allowing the hit to her chest. But before Sharon could strike her again with a hook, Hope was quick to grab the punch before contact, where she then turned her body into Sharon's with her back to the blonde's chest, as she then threw her over her shoulder, and onto her back; crashing onto the mat below.

"Fuck, Maria," Sharon griped from her spot, laying on the ground, "You Mr. Miyagi-ed her."

Feeling instantly on air for her take down, a take down that she'd been working towards since day one of farm training, Hope threw her hands to her hips, grinning, "The Karate Kid." --she happily nodded-- "I know that one." --looking to Maria-- "Loved that movie. Watched it all the time at my grandfather's. He had a V.C.R.."

"You know," Maria smirked at her, "when you say stuff like that, it makes it sound like you had a very impoverished childhood."

"Well, I mean" --Sharon picked herself up off the mat-- "maybe it was, since her weaponised silver spoon is still a little tarnished" --she shrugged-- "if you ask me, that is," she grunted, insinuating that Hope was at least impoverished in her fighting skills.

But before Hope could react to her, Maria said, "Okay, my turn with Hope-san," giving her a nickname that referenced the mentioned film.

"Go ahead." Sharon flopped her arm out, gesturing at Hope, almost like she was a situation and not an opponent, "I always enjoy watching a sensei school their student anyway." She then walked to the edge of the mat, taking a ship of her water.

"I'm older than her, she can't be my sensei," she corrected her in annoyance, knowing that the direct Japanese translation of the word meant "born before" and not "teacher". She then looked to Maria, giving her a cheeky, competitive smirk, "but I could be your Sensei."

Sharon then burst out laughing before she managed out, "Oh, Van Dyne, you tickle my funny bone."

Maria smirked at Sharon before directing her focus onto Hope, "that's her way of saying I'm a way better fighter than her, and she only wishes she was as skilled as I am."

"Fuck, no it's not!" Sharon snapped at her friend. Maria's smirk then turned into a full on smile in hearing her reaction towards her teasing. "You know what, Van Dyne?" Sharon addressed the other woman, "I actually want you to kick her ass now. I'll even lend you my silver polish if you need it."

Maria stepped in front of Hope, putting her fists up in a stance. Clearly over their banter, ready to fight. Hope mirrored her stance, smirking at Maria, ready to take her down. Hope made the first move, but Maria back stepped her punch, avoiding it completely. Hope then recovered before she tried again, where Maria caught her arm, and flung her over her shoulder in the exact move that Hope had just performed on Sharon.

Once she crashed to the mat, she heard Sharon cackling from the sidelines, evidently no longer rooting for Hope, as Sharon's obnoxious laugh drove her mad. Quickly, doing a kick-up, rocking back to spring her feet beneath her butt to stand position, she narrowed her eyes at Sharon before practically charging at Maria, grabbing her by the shoulders, where Maria was fast to knee her hard in the side, and then drop low to kick her feet out from underneath her.

Hope fell onto her side, grabbing at her ribs as she grunted in both anger and physical pain, "You were pulling your punches back in Santa Rosa, weren't you?" Hope asked, feeling like she'd been betrayed by Maria.

"I was trying to talk with you then, not fight you," Maria simply said as Hope picked herself up off the ground. Wanting to get a hit on her so badly. The two then circled each other, where again, Hope attacked first, but it didn't take long until she was sprawled out on the mat once more.

"Again." Maria demanded. She wasn't playing around now, but ordering her to step up and fight her.

Hope was no longer having fun. That successful take-down she made with Sharon earlier was now a distant memory. But the competitive bone that ran throughout her entire body pushed her to get up off the mat, more than Maria's orders ever could. She no longer cared about having a good time, all she wanted to do was obliterate Maria.

As they began again, Maria started to casually explain to Sharon while skillfully blocking everything Hope was throwing out at her, "She's still too reactionary, you need to get her to slow down and assess." Maria's actions made Hope audibly gasp. "Also, she's too weak on her left side, so make her fight opposite until it's equivalent or better than her right."

Hope hated everything that was happening then. Maria was making her feel like some inadequate nobody who would never be good enough for her ranks.

Realising that she was, again, fighting offensively, just like she was with Sharon, she decided to try making herself vulnerable like she'd done before, so she could get the upper hand once again. But as she attempted it, Maria didn't take the bait, but instead used it to administer a longer move; spin kicking her in the side; right in her, already sore, ribs. Making Hope crash to her knees.

"Know your opponent," Maria huffed for a breath while addressing her, "I'm not Carter. My weaknesses aren't the same as hers." Maria then turned to Sharon. "Let's move on to Strongbow now."

Hope ground her teeth, completely livid, as she walked over to the other mat, not looking back. Her pride demolished.

* * *

Opening the door to her personal accommodations after their morning session, Hope found Maria already in the room. She was sitting on the floor, in a fresh pair of clothes, with her back to her; her laptop out on the ground in front of her.

Just as Maria swiveled her body around on the floor to look at her, Hope sharply stated, "You're here."

Maria squinted at her while tilting her head, as she said, "I am," with a questioning look in her eyes.

Hope plopped her phone and water bottle on top of the small table, next to the stingers of her wasp suit that she'd been previously working on, and successfully upgraded. "Thought you'd be with Carter planning my next take down or something," she said in annoyance, still crossed with Maria for how harsh she'd been with her that day.

"No, we set up a game plan for that earlier already," Maria said, with a much stronger tone of voice, like she'd slipped right into commander mode.

Hope laughed under her breath through a clenched jaw. "Of course you did." She then put her hand to her hip as she grunted in sarcasm, "I look forward to your relentless training methods" --she pointed to herself-- "as I'm --clearly-- being singled out." Seeing clear as day that both Jason and Roz did not get the same ruthless treatment she had.

Maria firmly nodded, "You are being singled out. You're correct." She stared right at her, like a C.O. briefing her agent, "and you'll continue to be so, with your no-holds-barred training and instructors who will never halfass a fight with you, even on your off days. And then once you get your skill level up to take down me and Sharon, I'll find someone better than us to take you on," Suddenly Hope noticed Maria's eyes becoming glossy, "because," she took a breath, blinking her eyes dry. "because," she started again, but with a slight waver in her voice this time, "I'd rather you eat mat at the gym, than die out in the field just because I didn't prepare you well enough," she tightened her jaw, trying her best to compose herself, before she sternly nodded and turned back around to then hunch over her computer once again.

Hope instantly felt like a giant asshole. Maria wasn't hard on her to be cruel or lord her superior skills over her, she was doing it to protect her. Of course she was. How could Hope have been so stupid and prideful to think that the woman who'd lost so much, wouldn't be looking out for her to that degree, and all while still fully supporting her dangerous career path?

Guilt and love, that were both swelling within her, took control of her body as she walked to her to then drop to her knees, behind Maria's back. She then wrapped her arms around her shoulders, slightly wincing at the pain in her side through the action, before burrowing her face into the back of her head. Nestling into her hair, that was now let down from its ponytail.

"I'm sorry," she said with regret, "I didn't mean to be such a--"

"Salty bitch?" Maria calmly suggested.

"Yeah."

"It's okay. I'm pretty used to it by now." Hope could have sworn Maria was smiling through her words.

Hope merely growled out in response to her comment, before Maria turned in her seat a bit, so she didn't have to strain her neck back to look at her as Hope yanked her head back and loosened her grip around the woman.

Smirking at Hope, Maria asked, "How are your ribs?"

"Sore," Hope sighed in relief; glad that Maria no longer seemed annoyed with her for the poor attitude she'd just displayed.

"Yeah, I figured they might be." She reached over, grabbing at a towel that was laying on the floor, pulling a bag out from it.

"You got into the kitchen," Hope smiled inpleasant surprise towards the item.

"Perks of dating the Deputy Director with unlimited access--" she held up the bag "--Frozen peas." She then took a hold of the towel, wrapping it back around the bag, before slowly placing it to Hope's side, as the injured woman guided her hands into the right position.

Maria then sighed, looking at her hands that were holding the cold compress to her, "I may not be sorry for kicking your ass," she said gently before looking up to her, "but I am sorry for the pain you're in."

"Don't worry," Hope caught her eye, playfully smirking at her, 'I'll get you back soon enough."

Maria opened her mouth, about to respond to her, but was cut off by the sound of a knock at the door. "Waspy, it's me!" Roz called out from the other side of the barrier, making Hope look towards the direction of her voice. "I got that jump drive. I ended up just putting --like-- my entire library on it." Hope had totally forgotten that the woman was going to drop off some music for her.

"Shit. Roz." Hope hissed under her breath before looking back to Maria, whispering, "She doesn't know about us."

Hope then looked around the room, taking note of Maria's personal effects that were present in a few various locations. It definitely looked like she'd slept there if Roz knew what to focus on. "Are you going to shove me into your closet?" Maria asked, just as Hope's eyes flickered towards the washroom. "No, you're looking at the bathroom. Well that would be less cramped, but it does lack the symbolism."

Roz then called out again from outside, "Are you talking to someone in there, or are you listening to another science lecture on your phone again?"

Hope raised her voice, looking back to the door, "Roz, hold on a sec!"

"Kay," the girl answered back.

In an embarrassed panic, Hope turned to Maria, yet she kept her eyes fixed on a spot of carpet behind the other woman as she started to explain in a hushed tone, "Look, it was just that–" She took a small exasperated break to sigh before trying again "–coming here, I knew everyone would be aware of the nepotism that got me into the program, and I didn't really want to add on another layer of" --she made air quotes with her fingers-- "I'm also seeing the deputy director." She then looked up to meet Maria's gaze, "So I didn't tell anyone I was dating you," she then quickly added, when seeing a vulnerable look on Maria's face, needing her to know that she wasn't holding onto any internalised homophobia, and it wasn't that she was ashamed of her for being a woman or anything like that, "like you specifically. They know I'm dating some --like-- nebulous woman without a name."

"I get it," she nodded in understanding, keeping her voice low, "Sharon kept the fact she was related to former Director Carter for years because of this same reasoning."

"No, but it's immature" --Hope grabbed onto her arm, squeezing it-- "I don't wanna hide you. I don't care anymore what anyone thinks," she shook her head, finding her prior actions to be stupid and immature. Maria meant everything to her and she wanted to tell the world about her, even if it made her look less worthy of her positions in S.H.I.E.L.D..

Maria gave her a heartwarming smile as she asked, "So I don't have to hide in the bathroom?"

Hope grinned at her before straining her head back to call behind her, "Roz, you can come in!"

"Finally," she huffed as she walked in. But just as she caught sight of the two of them on the ground, she blurted, "Ah, Commander Hill" --she shook her head-- "I didn't realise you were here," she said like she'd somehow done something wrong by interrupting her C.O. "I-- Ah," She then narrowed her eyes at the two of them before scanning the room, "Wait…"

Hope then smirked at Maria, "I think she figured it out."

"She better have. I don't want any slouch detectives for agents."

Roz then looked at Maria like a deer in headlights before she slowly put the flash drive down, next to Hope's water bottle, as she awkwardly said, "I'm just gonna leave this here."

"Thank you," Hope smiled in gratitude.

"Yup," she said as she stiffly exited her room, shutting the door behind her.

Maria looked over to Hope. "Okay, that was wired--" she then tilted her head "--Though, she was kinda weird this morning during our session too."

Hope couldn't help but chuckle as she said, "She is one hundred percent going to jump me when you're not around and beg me to tell her everything about you." She pointed at the door with her thumb-- "That was her internally freaking out." She then loosely wrapped her arms around Maria's shoulders-- "You're her role model. Like, I'm pretty sure she's using your S.H.I.E.L.D. career as a roadmap for her life."

"What?" She looked at Hope with scepticism.

"Yeah." Hope decided to tease her a bit, "I've been wondering if I should give her Cassie's number so she can join your official fan club."

Maria frowned as she shook her head, her eyes bearing that same sadness that Hope had known all too well now. "That fan club would dismantle in seconds if its members knew the things I've done."

"No. Stop that train of thought before it pulls into Self-Contempt Station," Hope shook her head, reciting the words of one of her former therapists.

"Wha--?" But Maria didn't get a chance to get her question out, as Hope shut her up with a kiss. She just wished that Maria saw herself in the same way others had seen her. Especially, in the way Hope had seen her. So, Hope would just have to shift Maria's thoughts away from her self pity and onto the love that Hope had for her. She moved her lips away from Maria's mouth, to her neck, sucking on the tender skin there as her hand moved to her leg; running it up the inside of her thigh.

"Are you trying to derail my train?" Maria heatedly asked.

"Yes," she smiled into her skin just as she moved her hand away from her leg, to the front of Maria's waistband, sliding it under her garments, "Is it working?"

"Oh my god," Maria gasped just as Hope's fingers became busy inside her pants. "Yeah--" she dropped the peas that she'd just been holding at Hope's side "--I'd say it's working." She promptly grabbed onto Hope, clenching fistfulls of her shirt; her body starting to rock up against the woman's hand.

Hope chuckled at her response as she continued her actions, bringing Maria's body the pleasure that it deserved.

* * *

Shortly, Hope was making her way down to the cafeteria, now changed out of her gym clothing, leaving Maria to her work. Just as she rounded the corner, she saw Roz standing in the hall, in front of the mess hall doors.

Her face became excitable as she trudged towards Hope. "YOU'VE BEEN DATING COMMANDER HILL THIS WHOLE TIME AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?" She blurted.

"Oh, hey," Hope casually smiled at her, doing her damnedest to not burst out laughing at the reaction that she'd totally called. "Did you eat lunch already?"

"No. I didn't--" she frantically shook her head. "But --my god-- Waspy! You just let me talk smack about her for weeks--" she flailed her arms "--I told you she wasn't being a good girlfriend to you when she was probably off saving the world, because she's fucking Deputy Director Hill, and that's what she does on the daily!"

"Yes," Hope held her smile, enjoying every bit of Roz's outburst, "she's very good at saving the world."

Roz looked her over through slitted eyes. "You saw her the other week on your mission, didn't you?"

"I did."

"I knew it!" She clapped her hands.

"Let's go eat--" Hope walked to the doors, pushing them open with Roz right behind her "--We don't have much time left on our break."

"What's she like? Like, on a personal level?" Roz skipped to her side as they headed over to the buffet table, "Like we already know she has good taste in women since she's dating you."

"Aw, thanks, Roz."

"Yeah, yeah, I wasn't trying to charm you like Jason normally does," she admitted, "I was just stating facts." They both grabbed a tray and started loading them up with food. "So like… does she only date women? Cause I never even considered she wasn't straight before but then once I saw you two, I actually don't understand how I saw her as anything other than gay."

Reaching for a falafel pita, Hope shook her head, "yeah, no, she doesn't date men."

"This is so interesting. Tell me more. I know she's from Chicago. Is she a Blackhawks fan? Like she's gotta be, right? Lesbian northerners love hockey."

Hope looked at her like she was a complete oddity, "Out of all the things you could ask me about her, your mind went to 'does she like sports'?"

"I'm trying to understand the mind of a military genius from the ground up," she defended herself while ladling soup into a bowl for herself.

"How about you just come hang out with us later? Sit with us at dinner." Maria already promised her that she'd be in the cafeteria then since she missed both breakfast and lunch in there with her. "Then you can ask the source herself."

"Really?" Roz looked at her with wide eyes.

"Roz, you're my friend, of course you can really share a meal with my girlfriend and I."

Jason, walking over with a tray of dirty dishes in his hand, addressed them, "There you guys are."

"Jason," Roz spun around, almost knocking the food off of her tray in the process, "do you know who our little Ms. Waspy here has been dating this whole time?"

"Commander Hill?" He nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders.

"What! How did you know?"

"I thought it seemed rather obvious in the gym earlier," he said while disposing his tray on the cart off to the side, where Hope realised that he must have noticed her constant staring of Maria while they were working together.

"Okay, that's not fair," the young woman grunted, "I always feel like I'm two steps behind you guys at all times" --she walked to a nearby table-- "and out of the three of us--" she put her tray down before gesturing to herself "--I'm the agent." Which was true. She was the only one who'd taken the agents exam out of them.

"Roz" --Jason walked over to that same table-- "we're both twice your age, with more life experience. Stop being so hard on yourself."

"Whoa," --Hope turned to look at him, just before she grabbed a can of soda water for herself-- "I'm forty this year, not forty-six," she concluded after doing the math. Knowing Roz's age due to the fact that they'd only just celebrated her twenty-third birthday with her a few days ago.

"Yeah," Roz looked up at Jason, who was still standing next to her table, "you can't just tack six years onto a woman like that."

"My apologies" --he rolled his eyes at them as Hope approached the table, sitting across from Roz-- "I'm twice your age." He then looked to Hope, as he too sat down, now situated between them, as he smirked, "Hope is just young and brilliant" --he turned his head to look at Roz-- "and you should get onto her level."

"Thank you," Hope nodded with a smile, as she cracked her soda water open.

"Hey, no flirting with her anymore" --Roz pointed her spoon at him like a threat-- "I no longer support it. You're messing with Hill's woman here." Hope had to bite down a grin; loving that she was now seen as a part of Maria. "And, yeah, you might be the older brother I never had, but I'd still trip you into a puddle if it meant the commander didn't have to walk through it and get her feet wet, while using your body as a bridge."

"You are so unnecessarily dramatic, adeezhí," he chuckled while wrapping his arm around her shoulder, pulling her into a side hug, making her giggle at his actions. Hope couldn't help but shake her head at them, finding their big brother/little sister dynamic oh so very adorable.

Pulling away from Jason's embrace, Roz asked, "Hey, Waspy, you think you can pull some girlfriend strings and get me a flying car from S.H.I.E.L.D.?" She then slurped a spoonful of soup before continuing, "I want one for all my missions."

"A flying car? There's no way that's a thing that exists," Hope shook her head, thinking her request sounded rather silly, while she absentmindedly pulled her wasp necklace from underneath her shirt, holding it out taught from her neck. She'd put the piece of jewellery back on that afternoon, not wanting to risk ripping it off of her person during their gym session that morning.

"Does too!" She countered, "I overheard one of the instructors at the academy talking about it when he was in the bathroom."

"He?" Jason raised a brow.

"There was a vent so I could hear without going into the men's room, okay?" She said innocently.

But just then, interrupting their conversation, the lights in the cafeteria flickered off while the ground shook beneath their feet. Peering out the windows that lined the one outer wall, they saw the sky light up in what looked like purple lightning. The trio looked to each other in confusion, before wordlessly getting up to run outside as the lights flickered back on in the building.

Now, out in the yard, gazing up, the sky had turned a dark violet colour with strange lively energy pulsating throughout it.

Hopes mouth then fell open as she muttered, "What the fuck is this?"

* * *

A/N I hope you guys are enjoying this story??? I'd love to hear your thoughts in a comments. Thanks for reading!


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